A Melbourne-based youth support service say the Victorian government has cut a third of its funding for its crime prevention program. The Victorian government has denied it's a funding cut, saying the money was a one-off pandemic supplement, which YSAS disputes.
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00:00 Youth worker Tracy Courtney spends almost every day on the road visiting at-risk kids.
00:07 "In a typical day I could be going to someone's home to see them there or we might be going
00:15 out somewhere."
00:16 She's currently helping more than a dozen young offenders in Melbourne's west turn their
00:20 lives around, including a 15-year-old boy who was arrested last year after an alleged
00:25 home invasion.
00:27 His mother says Tracy has been critical for keeping her son out of trouble.
00:31 "He doesn't talk to anyone. He doesn't confide in no one except for his worker. If his worker
00:38 didn't come when she did he'd probably be in Parkville now."
00:47 But next month Tracy will lose her job alongside 10 other youth workers after the government
00:52 slushed funding to the Youth Support and Advocacy Service, also known as YSAS, in this year's
00:57 budget.
00:58 "Right now we've got 54 young people just in the west, 112 young people across Melbourne
01:04 waiting for a service and they're not going to get it."
01:07 Youth crime in Victoria surged last year, with the number of offences committed by 14-17
01:12 year olds increasing by 30 per cent, while crimes committed by 10-13 year olds rose by
01:17 more than 22 per cent. This year's budget allocated $34 million to trial electronic
01:23 monitoring of young offenders.
01:25 "We have the lowest rates of young people in custody and that is because there has been
01:30 a huge amount of work by agencies, by Victoria Police and the community."
01:34 Michael Burke was the head of Victoria's Youth Parole Board for 13 years and says early intervention,
01:40 not just punitive measures, are vital to stop re-offending.
01:43 "They need to be viewed in the context of what their early lives were, dislocation,
01:50 poverty, abuse within families."
01:55 The state government has denied it cut funding to YSAS, saying the organisation's Youth Crime
02:00 Prevention Program received additional funding during the pandemic, as a one-off supplement.
02:05 "The problem was there before the pandemic, was there during the pandemic and post-pandemic
02:11 it's probably more of an issue."
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