Identifying strengths and gaps in youth services

Each day, dedicated individuals from non-government organisations deliver vital services to vulnerable young people and their families in Townsville. These services represent a real strength for the local community.

However, despite this, some children remain at risk of falling into a cycle of crime.

For this reason, we joined with 60 non-government organisations last week to assess how we collectively identify children who are at risk of making poor choices. We also sought views on current services, including any potential gaps.

Key ideas raised included:

• extending some services for young people outside of business hours
• greater integrated case management
• research into successful international models that could be adopted in Queensland.

However, above all else, there was strong agreement that solutions to youth crime will rely heavily on working with families as a whole and not merely the individual.

While there are many complex reasons why young people offend, there are also well recognised risk factors, including family breakdown, substance abuse, homelessness and poor school attendance.

By acting on difficulties within families through targeted preventative work, early intervention, and closer integration between services, we’ll be in a much better position to give young people a brighter future.

We look forward to strengthening our connections with non-government organisations as the work of our action group continues.