In 2019, having seen numerous young people exiting youth detention without any support or guidance and ultimately returning to custody, Youth Off The Streets’ Engagement and Support Team South West Sydney embarked on a mission to make a difference to young people involved with the justice system.
After extensive consultation, the series of workshops that form the Aspire to Inspire youth justice program were designed to reflect young people’s feedback about the support they need.
“We developed the Aspire to Inspire program with young people in custody at the time, young people who had come out of custody and young people who have never been in custody but have been involved in the criminal justice system,” says Fatina Elabd, Sydney Engagement and Support Team Leader.
“One of the biggest needs our team found was support around post–release. Once they’ve been released, a lot of young people are left with no support. Being in custody, it’s almost like time stops for them. But then when they come back out, it’s often a shock as to how much has changed in the community.”
The Aspire to Inspire program now operates at the Reiby Youth Justice Centre in New South Wales, with ambitions for it to be delivered as a prevention program in other detention centres, schools and community sport organisations.
Culturally responsive support is critical
Through consultations with young people, it became clear that knowledge of and engagement with identity and culture made a significant difference to wellbeing. “We identified that many of the young people are First Nations,” says Fatina. “So learning about their culture and identity to understand their roots resonated with them.”
Rather than considering culture a ‘risk factor’, the Aspire to Inspire program reflects the nurturing and protective effects of culture.
In addition to the spiritual and cultural wellbeing of young people, Youth Off The Streets also works with them to address the emotional and psychological issues behind their behaviour – and which are often made worse by involvement with the justice system.
“We’ve had a lot of young people say that they either weren’t sure how to manage their anger, or what alternatives there were to violence when they were angry,” Fatina says.
The Aspire to Inspire program aims to reduce instances of recidivism.
An anger management workshop is offered as part of the program to help the young people to learn self-regulation.
“Being able to manage their own emotions and build that resilience is so important. It’s usually not something they’ve had the support to develop before,” says Fatina.
“A lot of young people in custody come from domestic and family violence situations, so we also run a healthy relationships workshop,” she continues. “It’s all about positive relationships and how to identify unhealthy ones.”
Workshops on legal rights, both while in custody and when out in the community, are also offered.
Physical and mental health are also covered in workshop sessions, with managing depression and anxiety a key focus.
“All the workshops are very interactive, so there’s never a time when we’re just sitting and talking at the young people,” Fatina says. “They’re up and about and doing things while we are having those conversations.”
Life after the youth justice system
Though healing from past incarceration is an important goal of Aspire to Inspire, the program is ultimately about supporting young people to see a positive future for themselves and creating a smooth transition from custody into the community.
“We discuss the young people’s goals and future planning. Many young people in custody previously didn’t feel any empowerment or desire to think ahead,” Fatina says. “By us creating goal planning with them, that encourages them think about the future and what they want for themselves, which helps reduce recidivism rates.”
This goal planning then leads to pathways into education and employment following release from custody.
An unintended but positive outcome post-release has been the engagement with Youth Off The Streets’ wraparound support services.
“A lot of young people who exit custody and who are from the local community start coming to our drop-in program as well,” she says. “A lot of the young people look forward to exiting and coming into our drop-in space and continuing to engage with us.”
