Katra’s story: reducing crime through care
Katra never thought she’d work with young people. “I thought I wouldn’t be able to engage with them very well,” she says. “I was cautious of English being my second language, so I thought they wouldn’t be able to understand me.”
But, like many in the sector, the Zimbabwe-born practitioner had heard of YSAS’s strong reputation. She took a chance on a maternity leave contract with the Youth Support Service at YSAS Dandenong.
That nine-month contract has turned into over ten years. “I fell in love with the culture,” she says. “I thought I would grow and I have grown, especially compared to my friends who also graduated.”
Katra also discovered a deep passion for crime prevention, helping young people move towards a more positive path. “I always say with the work that we do in crime prevention, it’s about sowing a seed,” she says.
“We are watering it, and we may not see it grow into fruits, but we’ve sown the seed.”
Katra says young people who commit offences are often surrounded by negative messages about themselves. “But with this work you actually see they’ve got strengths. They’ve got protective factors, they’ve got family who still believe in them, and they’ve got dreams and things they want to achieve later in life.”
Today, Katra is the team leader for PIVOT, a crime prevention program that supports young people more deeply involved with the justice system. YSAS leads the program in partnership with Kids First Australia, Mission Australia, Jesuit Social Services and Windana. “PIVOT aims to divert young people from further offending by addressing their repeated offending behaviours,” Katra explains. These behaviours may include car theft, unlicensed driving, home invasions, and aggravated burglaries.
“The way PIVOT is designed, we carry a low caseload but provide high-intensity support,” she says. “You’re supporting the young person, the mum or dad or siblings, their chosen family. You are linking them in with whatever services they need.”
Interventions usually last 12 months, with weekly outreach. Katra’s role is flexible—she might support a young person at court, help a parent with transport, or coordinate care team meetings. The program uses the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model to assess needs across areas like school disengagement, peer influences, substance use, or home life.
One of Katra’s recent clients had relocated due to family violence. The young person’s mother was raising ten children alone in a new area, with some already showing signs of offending. Katra helped her client reflect on her behaviour. “She did identify that her peers were influencing some of her behaviours in terms of offending,” Katra says.
With Katra’s support, the young person re-engaged with school and found a job. Katra also supported her mother to access services and worked with one of her siblings. “She was telling me that some of her siblings were saying they need to apply for a job because they have seen her do that.”
Katra credits her Zimbabwean upbringing with giving her a strong sense of “honesty and right intentions,” which helps her build relationships. Katra says building trust is at the core of her work.
“For me that trust translates into accepting help because it means they are saying they can be vulnerable with you.”
Her multicultural background is also an asset. “I have that awareness of the cultural differences, and some of the challenges that our young people from multicultural backgrounds experience.”
At the heart of her approach is respect for each individual’s voice. “We may have all the textbook interventions, but each person is different because we are all individuals,” she says.
“They have the answer, it’s just sometimes about getting the confidence and the assurance that they’re heading in the right direction.”