A Flemington-based program working with at-risk western suburbs youth will fold without urgent financial support, according to its head.
Operation Newstart has assisted more than 2000 of the state’s most vulnerable young people, including almost 500 in the western suburbs.
Executive officer Phil Wheatley told the Weekly Review the award-winning program was likely to disappear without urgent help from the state government and Victoria Police.
“We are operating five programs this term with the support of schools, but the outlook in the medium term is very problematic.”
Last year the federal government allocated the program a $300,000 grant from the National Crime Prevention Fund, but the offer was withdrawn by the new Coalition government.
In November Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Tim Cartwright wrote to Mr Wheatley informing him the police would also be pulling out of the program.
“The commitment of 80 days per annum remains a significant impost on our ability to provide ongoing support for frontline services that [we] are organisationally committed to,” he wrote.
“Our focus for the future is not to abandon partnerships such as Operation Newstart but our role in the health and welfare of young people is best placed in the early identification and linkage to those services, not the actual delivery.”
Mr Wheatley said this was a bitter blow for the program, as having police officers involved was a crucial means for building trust in young participants.
Opposition police spokesman and Williamstown MP Wade Noonan raised the matter in State Parliament, calling on Police Minister Kim Wells to meet with program leaders.
“Many of the secondary school-aged young people who have benefited from this program have been described as gifted, but through a variety of circumstances they have fallen on hard times and dabbled in crime, drugs, alcohol or other antisocial behaviours,” Mr Noonan said.
“As such, many drop out of school and potentially consign themselves to lives lacking hope or direction. That is why Operation Newstart matters to them.”
The Victoria Parliament’s
Drug & Crime Prevention Committee’s Inquiry Into Locally Based Approaches to Community Safety and Crime Prevention report found that crime prevention should be considered an integral part of policing, and police officers who work in the area of crime prevention should be highly valued within the organisation.
The minister’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
