❓ Mr. Whitby asks about the Target 120 program's effectiveness in reducing youth offending and how its expansion will further support young people. The Minister details the program's aims, rollout, positive early outcomes, and data analytics component.
AnsweredQoN 915Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
JUVENILE OFFENDING —
TARGET 120
915. Mr R.R. WHITBY to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's commitment to keeping WA safe and strong by investing in
early intervention measures.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on how this government's Target 120 program
is helping to reduce offending by young people?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house how the expansion of this program will further
support more young people and their families?
TARGET 120
915. Mr R.R. WHITBY to the Minister for Child Protection:
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's commitment to keeping WA safe and strong by investing in
early intervention measures.
(1) Can the
minister update the house on how this government's Target 120 program
is helping to reduce offending by young people?
(2) Can the
minister advise the house how the expansion of this program will further
support more young people and their families?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I thank the member for the question. Members of
the house might remember that Target 120 was a policy that WA Labor took to the
last election. The name comes from police saying to us in opposition that if
they could work proactively with about 120 families around the state, they
thought they could really interrupt an unfortunately well-worn path for some of
those family members, whereby people end up in the juvenile justice system and
progress into the adult justice system, with bad outcomes for individuals as
well as young members of those families. It is essentially a youth justice
preventive program that I have had carriage of. We allocated $20.4 million over
four years. We plan to do 11 regional and metropolitan sites and have rolled
out nine of those sites. Member for Geraldton, the reason that I was in
Geraldton last week was to meet some of the participates at the Geraldton site.
There are starting to be some very good outcomes.
The
target cohort for this program is young people between 10 and 14 years of age
who have had interactions with the police but have not spent time in
detention. Essentially, community youth workers go out and work with those
young people, and, importantly, their families too. The youth workers engage
with the families to understand some of the issues that may have led to
offending in the first place. We have been working with the Geraldton site
participants for under a year. There are 10 participants in the Geraldton
program. Of course, there is a multiplier effect, because the youth workers end
up working with siblings and parents as well. Since joining the program, 77 per
cent of the Geraldton participants have not offended at all and there has been
a 99 per cent decrease in offences. There are 58 active participants across the
state. Of those engaged with the program, 62 per cent have had no contact with
police since joining. For some of them, it has been a couple of years, so it is
significant. Some of the activities include mentoring, support with housing, on-country tours and extracurricular activities
like football and netball. In fact, while I was there I met some of the
girls who are coming to Perth to play netball as a reward for their school
attendance as part of the program.
The other important element of Target
120 is the data analytics that sit behind it, so that we can start to properly
demonstrate that investment in young people will be not only good for those
young people, but also money well spent. I am very proud of the work that has
been done. I thank all the staff of the Department of Communities who are
involved in the program and our community partners. I also know that some
members on this side of the house—someone who sits alongside me, the
member for Warnbro, and the member for Armadale—were involved in the
policy development. I hope that we can continue to demonstrate good proactive
outcomes for those young people.
the house might remember that Target 120 was a policy that WA Labor took to the
last election. The name comes from police saying to us in opposition that if
they could work proactively with about 120 families around the state, they
thought they could really interrupt an unfortunately well-worn path for some of
those family members, whereby people end up in the juvenile justice system and
progress into the adult justice system, with bad outcomes for individuals as
well as young members of those families. It is essentially a youth justice
preventive program that I have had carriage of. We allocated $20.4 million over
four years. We plan to do 11 regional and metropolitan sites and have rolled
out nine of those sites. Member for Geraldton, the reason that I was in
Geraldton last week was to meet some of the participates at the Geraldton site.
There are starting to be some very good outcomes.
The
target cohort for this program is young people between 10 and 14 years of age
who have had interactions with the police but have not spent time in
detention. Essentially, community youth workers go out and work with those
young people, and, importantly, their families too. The youth workers engage
with the families to understand some of the issues that may have led to
offending in the first place. We have been working with the Geraldton site
participants for under a year. There are 10 participants in the Geraldton
program. Of course, there is a multiplier effect, because the youth workers end
up working with siblings and parents as well. Since joining the program, 77 per
cent of the Geraldton participants have not offended at all and there has been
a 99 per cent decrease in offences. There are 58 active participants across the
state. Of those engaged with the program, 62 per cent have had no contact with
police since joining. For some of them, it has been a couple of years, so it is
significant. Some of the activities include mentoring, support with housing, on-country tours and extracurricular activities
like football and netball. In fact, while I was there I met some of the
girls who are coming to Perth to play netball as a reward for their school
attendance as part of the program.
The other important element of Target
120 is the data analytics that sit behind it, so that we can start to properly
demonstrate that investment in young people will be not only good for those
young people, but also money well spent. I am very proud of the work that has
been done. I thank all the staff of the Department of Communities who are
involved in the program and our community partners. I also know that some
members on this side of the house—someone who sits alongside me, the
member for Warnbro, and the member for Armadale—were involved in the
policy development. I hope that we can continue to demonstrate good proactive
outcomes for those young people.
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