NSW Police help 140 youth rise-up to employment
ONE hundred and forty young people have been referred into workplace opportunities one year after the NSW Police Commissioner launched the RISEUP strategy targeting disengaged youth across the state.
RISEUP has seen NSW Police work with the PCYC to drive job-ready programs, mentoring and vocational training for at risk youth aged between 15 and 18.
DUBBO’S Orana Juvenile Justice Centre hit the national headlines last Friday night after some of the inmates climbed onto the centre roof, sparking a three hour standoff with police.
It’s virtually a waste of time ever asking the department for answers to the simplest things, it’s one of the state’s most secretive and non-transparent organisations with a culture of cover-up as its default position.
But this is an ongoing problem at JJ centres not only in Dubbo, but across NSW.
Staff staged a stop-work out the front of Orana JJS back in January to highlight concerns about escalating violence in the centres including the one at Dubbo.
The government has been accused of cutting specialist high risk offender units which has led to jumps in assaults on staff.
As a by-product, the Public Service Association (PSA) claims that means the most difficult kids in the system aren’t having their rehabilitation needs met and, after all, that’s meant to be the whole point of JJS in the first place.
Ironically, on Wednesday we saw police commissioner Mick Fuller celebrate the first anniversary of the RISEUP Strategy alongside police minister David Elliott at the Wooloomooloo PCYC.
They were celebrating the fact that 140 young people have been referred into workplace opportunities in the 12 months since the NSW Police Commissioner launched the RISEUP strategy targeting disengaged youth.
RISEUP was designed to prioritise youth engagement and the strategy incorporates job-ready programs, mentoring and vocational training supported by PCYC NSW to steer at risk youth away from crime and into workplace opportunities.
In other words, investment in these kids by offering them real opportunities to thrive and grow.
There were a lot of bigwigs at the launch representing all sorts of big business partners such as Hungry Jacks, Bunnings and Allianz, but as great as this is, I couldn’t help but think that these starting positions may be all these kids ever achieve.
Here in Dubbo we have a much better pathway to success and we need government to not only get behind it and support this private enterprise initiative, we need both the state and federal governments to study these programs which actually achieve results and learn how to entice other private businesses to replicate them.
Every week I do a story on either employees at Fletcher International or events which are happening out there, and each time I visit the plant I’m astounded at the social programs this private business is running free of charge to the community and state – this is a major part of my motivation to cover the stories out there.
Kids who’ve had tough lives and lived in very vulnerable circumstances are taken into the fold and the culture out there is so strong that many workers give up their own time to provide driving lessons, counselling, pick-ups and drop-offs to and from work and all manner of unpaid services.
This embracing culture helps lift these people up and gives them not only pride in themselves, but also hope in their futures.
From a purely economic perspective, which the bean-counting bureaucrats in treasury use as their goalposts, it costs a fortune to keep kids in the JJ system, so I reckon the state government needs to run pilot programs where they subsidise employers like Fletcher International to take these children on, and give them a taste of what they can achieve if they’re just given an opportunity.
Most kids live lives where their parents work, and they grow up knowing that you go to work to save money and get ahead.
But many of these kids in the JJ system think a normal part of the week is attending list day at the local court because that’s where their role models are.
Yes, safety of the community is the overwhelming priority, and the people who are going to cause harm to others and mayhem on the streets need to be locked away.
But as a society we really need to step up and show these kids that there can be a different future.
And much of that needs to start with employers who understand and embrace their social obligations, those who understand that balance sheets and monthly bank balances aren’t the only factors which make a successful business.
The bureaucracy managing these kids isn’t working, so we need to do things differently.
"This embracing culture helps lift these people up and gives them not only pride in themselves, but also hope in their futures... "