A youth service that helps young offenders get their lives back on track is in desperate need of funding.
Youth Junction in Sunshine runs a crime prevention program for 18- to 25-year-olds in the western suburbs who have been charged with minor offences.
General manager Karen Hart said the program, which had a 74 per cent success rate of participants not returning to court, had been funded by the Legal Services Board for the past five years. That funding ran out in October last year.
The Youth Junction board has agreed to partially self-fund the program – which costs $200,000 a year to run – until September.
The service is applying for state and federal funding in a bid to keep the program alive.
“We get the young adults at the point of pre-sentence,” Ms Hart said.
“The idea is that the magistrates refer them here and we can engage them in a whole range of diverse services that we have – mostly around housing, employment, drugs and alcohol, and health. We also do crime prevention work with them, with the idea that they go back to the magistrates and they’ve got their lives back on the straight and narrow.”
Ms Hart said the funding cut already meant the service would have to put off a case manager and could help only two-thirds of the number of clients it was previously able to see.
The change is already being felt in the courts.
One recent case at the Sunshine Magistrates Court involved the sentencing of a 20-year-old who had pleaded guilty to offences including car theft, drug possession and profiting from the proceeds of crime. As part of the young man’s rehabilitation, it was suggested that he attend Youth Junction.
But magistrate Noreen Toohey noted that the service could no longer take on the same number of referrals as before.
Ms Hart said the financial insecurity meant it was difficult for the service to plan.
“It’s very difficult to keep the magistrates informed about the future of the program and how many referrals they should be sending through,” Ms Hart said.
