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Victorian YMCA Youth and Community Services |
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Written by Office of the Minister for Home Affairs
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Thursday, 03 September 2009 |
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Melbourne, Thursday 3 September 2009, 10am
First, may I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we meet on – and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.
My parliamentary colleague, Lindsay Tanner, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation and of course the local member here in the electorate of Melbourne
Sherilyn Hansen - YMCA Victoria Manager - The Bridge Project
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is a great pleasure to join you today.
And I would particularly like to thank Sherilyn and her team for hosting this event at such short notice.
The YMCA is undoubtedly one of Australia’s best known community organisations.
And it has a very proud history here in Victoria dating back over 150 years.
It’s also very pleasing for me to be here just a few days away from Fathers’ Day – a day of celebration that was instituted by the YMCA some 99 years ago to recognise the significant role that fathers and male role models play in our communities.
More recently, in 2002, the Proceeds of Crime Act was passed and came into operation in 2003.
The Act provides a scheme to trace, restrain and confiscate the proceeds of crime against Commonwealth Law.
One great inclusion in the Act is the provision for the Government to be able to put funds from the proceeds of crime back into the community to help with crime prevention, law enforcement, and illegal drug diversion and treatment.
Earlier this year my predecessor Bob Debus announced a nation wide funding round under the Act, and invited non-government organisations like the ‘Y’ to apply for funding.
The response was huge with over 600 applications submitted.
And I was pleased to see that a number of applications had a focus on early intervention – addressing the issues we know can lead to a person making poor choices and ending up on the wrong side of the law.
For example, low educational attainment, low self-esteem, and unemployment are reliable predictors of future engagement with the criminal justice system.So I was very impressed by the creative approaches that some community groups proposed to help reduce crime.
The Government is always keen to work with local groups and even though the YMCA is an international institution it certainly has a local focus and is very much in touch with its community.
One example of this is a very successful pilot project that was funded by the Victorian Government and the Australian Government.
The Bridge Project has contributed to lowering crime rates and has had a remarkable impact on recidivism – with the rate among male participants dropping from 55% to 25%.
So I am very pleased this project will be expanded.
It will be actively supported by the State Government, as well as the Transport Workers Union and KPMG.
And it will most certainly continue to be supported by the Australian Government.
I am delighted to announce that we are investing in the expansion of the Bridge Project – providing the Victorian YMCA Youth and Community Services with funding of $500,000.
It’s great to see such good work being done to help improve the employment prospects of some of our most marginalised young people.
And it’s also great to see Industry getting behind these sorts of initiatives and giving a helping hand to those who need a bit of assistance to enter the workforce.
These partnerships are vital and are very much in line with the Government’s plan to keep all Australians safe, and to maintain social cohesion.
I know that the ‘Y’ has a vision to build strong people, strong families and strong communities.
The Australian Government shares this vision.
We wish you well with your endeavours.
And I’m particularly keen to hear of the continued success of the Bridge Project.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 15 September 2009 )
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