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State Government fails to renew funding to key youth crime prevention program

Up to 330 young people per year who come into contact with police will be denied access to an effective program that can turn them away from crime and toward a better future.

Despite a recent rise in youth crime and concerns about community safety, the State Government did not renew funding for 11 Youth Support Service (YSS) positions in the recent Victorian Budget. This will have the most impact in Melbourne’s west and north, where many high-profile youth crime incidents have occurred in the last 12 months.

YSS, run by the Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS), has been lauded by police and crime prevention experts for its success in supporting young people aged 10 to 17 who have been the subject of police interventions, helping them to change direction and engage more positively with their families and communities.

YSAS is calling on the State Government to urgently reconsider the decision, which will result in the program losing $1.85 million in funding and almost one-third of its workforce. 

“With youth crime the highest it has been in a decade, now is not the time to be reducing programs that have been proven to reduce youth crime in Melbourne,” YSAS CEO Andrew Bruun said. 

He said that when the program was initially expanded in 2020, the government indicated it was in response to a growing community need for crime prevention work with young people, rather than as a specific pandemic response. As such, YSAS believes the funding should be ongoing.

“Full funding for the Youth Support Service must be restored to keep vulnerable communities safe and help at-risk young people get the support they need to move away from crime,” Bruun said.

“The government has been serious about reducing rates of youth crime and changing course now will come at great cost to our community over the long term, socially and financially.”

Almost half of the positions defunded are in Melbourne’s west, where there is currently a waitlist of 54 young people. 

YSS West Youth and Family Worker Tracy Courtney is currently trying to find alternative options for the young people she is working with.

“The work I do is flexible and tailored to each young person based on their unique lives, strengths, and goals,” Courtney said.

“We work on re-engaging with school, strengthening connections with family and friends, finding a job or developing a new positive hobby. Without this support, I really worry for these young people who are already facing significant disadvantage and adversity.”

YSAS expects the demand for YSS to increase significantly in Victoria when the age of criminal responsibility rises to 12 later this year, and to 14 in 2027.

County Court reserve judge and former head of the Youth Parole Board Michael Bourke said early intervention is essential.

“Often the young people who end up in youth detention have a background of child protection from the age of 10, and that’s when the risk of them moving into a criminal or an anti-social environment arises,” Bourke said.

Bruun said YSS is one of the few programs that currently works with 10 and 11-year-olds. 

“YSS is perfectly placed to help these young people, but we need proper government funding to do that.”

Since 2011, the YSS program has engaged over 10,600 young people. Evaluations by Swinburne University’s Centre for Forensic Behavioural Sciences and KPMG have found the program successfully reduces young people’s engagement with police and the youth justice system.

Talent available for interview:

Andrew Bruun, YSAS CEO

Michael Bourke, reserve County Court judge and former head of the Youth Parole Board, YSAS board member

Contact: Beth Gibson, YSAS Storytelling Lead, 0417 053 032

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