Page 2947 - Week 08 - Thursday, 17 August 2017
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undertakes research and makes recommendations aimed at preventing child deaths. As Mrs Kikkert has noted, we are also investing a further $2.1 million At Bimberi Youth Justice Centre to meet capacity requirements and ensure the continued safety and wellbeing of young people and staff.
This budget delivers a record investment of an additional $43.8 million over four years into our child protection and out of home care system. This will ensure that we continue to deliver better services to children and young people in Canberra. This package provides additional resources for children and youth protection services in the ACT, boosting the government’s investment in new services and reforms through the implementation of A step up for our kids, our comprehensive five-year out of home care strategy.
As Australia responds to the scourge of family violence, our services must respond to increased reporting rates. That is why as part of our package $10.1 million over four years will go to the front end of our child and youth protection services, funding two new casework teams. For those families who do engage with the child protection system, $33.7 million has been provided to support children and young people in need of safer environments and to provide additional therapeutic placement options for children who cannot live at home.
We take our responsibilities for children and young people and their families very seriously and have delivered a budget to support them in some of their most difficult times. We also recognise that early intervention is vital. This focus under A step up for our kids has already seen promising results. The uniting children and families ACT program is having a very real impact in keeping children and young people out of the out of home care system, but we know that prevention and early intervention needs to be a focus across the system. Our child and family centres located in Tuggeranong, Gungahlin and west Belconnen deliver a wide range of supports to families and children both within the centres and via outreach services. They are always a joy to visit.
In this budget we are investing $502,000 to continue the growing the healthy families community building program delivered out of the child and family centres. This program supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities with a range of culturally specific, safe and informed services. We, of course, continue to engage with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community through the elected body, the United Ngunnawal Elders Council and directly with the community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations. This government recognises that a business-as-usual approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs is not sufficient. We must do more and we must do better.
I was pleased to announce that as part of the budget this government will be supporting new and emerging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations by establishing a new grants program. Over the next four years seed funding of $100,000 will be available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations. We recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have their own solutions and we are working with them to provide more opportunity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans to access culturally strong supports.
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