Page 5441 - Week 14 - Thursday, 30 November 2017
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Another example in a holistic health context is the Canberra Sexual Health Centre youth sexual health outreach program, which helps young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to understand the links between their sexual health and their general health and wellbeing, and provides them with information about health services.
Feeling safe is a key focus area of the agreement, and the annual report provides evidence of a range of initiatives under the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice partnership. One of these is the ACT bail support program, a culturally appropriate service that includes court-based and outreach bail support and support out of business hours to people in the Alexander Maconochie Centre. The provision of this support has filled a gap in bail support which would have resulted in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being ineligible for bail.
Another key initiative under this theme is the 10-year award-winning blueprint for youth justice in the ACT, which I have spoken about often in this place. Since the introduction of the blueprint, we have seen a 33 per cent reduction in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people under youth justice supervision; a 35 per cent reduction in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people under community-based supervision; and a 66 per cent reduction in nights spent in custody by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.
As members are aware, I have recently established a task force, co-chaired by the Children and Young People Commissioner, to consider how we can best deliver continued improvements in outcomes for young people over the second five years of the strategy. The continued over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in the youth justice system is one focus of the task force’s important work.
A further achievement under this theme in the 2016-17 reporting period is that 98 per cent of offenders released from the AMC entered the extended through-care program, well above the target of 90 per cent. Extended through-care provides critical support and linkages to services and housing to assist people to re-connect with the community and avoid reoffending upon release.
Access to safe, affordable and secure housing has many benefits for physical, mental and cultural wellbeing and is an important component of community safety and stability. Housing ACT continues to work closely with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and staff to provide tailored service responses to the community.
On 7 September 2016, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander older persons accommodation project Mura Gunya, meaning “pathway to home”, was officially opened. The purpose-built complex consists of five two-bedroom dwellings for older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT. The ACT government worked collaboratively with the elected body to deliver this important project. In the 2017-18 budget, the government provided funding to undertake early planning to identify options for the design, location and construction of a second Aboriginal and
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