CAMPS TO GIVE KIDS NEW SHOT
AN Aboriginal-owned and operated company is helping at-risk young people involved in the youth justice system get back on track.
B18’s Wake Up program uses a combination of bush camps, work experience and vocational education and training to help kids reconnect with culture and country, while developing new work-ready skills.
As qualified tradesmen, the B18 team teach real work skills focused mainly on the conservation, land management and construction industries.
The program’s managing director Aidan McGuinness said the initiative would help give young people the tools they need to make better choices as they reach adulthood.
“We take young people who have already been in the system and we
give them an opportunity,” he said. “They are good kids who lack opportunities and don’t have the best living environments.”
Territory Families Minister Kate Worden said the camps provided police and the courts with options to divert young people away from the formal youth justice system.
“By engaging young people in Youth Camp programs and giving them access to educational
opportunities we aim to put young people back on the right path while providing opportunities for their future,” she said. “Programs like B18 target young people when they are beginning to come to the attention of police and exhibiting offending behaviours. It does this by helping to build strategies for non-reoffending and providing services to young people that improve their chances of a positive future.”