By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
Service to close after slashing repeat crime…
A DIVERSION program that has stopped nearly 90 per cent of its young male clients from violently re-offending is set to close after losing its $308,000 state funding.
The Gain Respect and Increase Personal Power (GRIPP) program, which is run by City of Greater Dandenong Youth Services, has reformed hundreds of teenage males who commited assaults and other violent and aggressive offences since 2008.
The staggeringly low 11-13 per cent recidivist rate among GRIPP clients mainly comprise petty thefts and minor offences.
It was half the rate for young males under Department of Justice juvenile supervision orders.
Greater Dandenong community wellbeing manager Martin Fidler said GRIPP’s youth workers and counsellors delved into each client’s triggers for violence, such as drug use, mental health, trauma and intergenerational family violence and offending.
The program also aimed to reconcile clients with their families.
“We believe it’s been a very successful program,” Mr Fidler said.
“The majority of young men didn’t reoffend with violent behaviour.”
A former client told the Journal last week that GRIPP turned his crime-riddled life around after he faced up to 25 years incarceration for a vicious assault.
Now a hard-working full-time apprentice, he still keeps in touch with his GRIPP youth worker.
He said he was “shattered” to learn of the closure.
A close relative of another reformed client said the move was a “tragedy”, particularly in the face of challenging social ills such as brutal school bullying, high youth unemployment and “the ice crisis”.
Springvale-Monash Community Legal Service executive director Kristen Wallwork said there was widespread “surprise”.
“Our duty lawyer said it was a fantastic alternative for juvenile justice, a great place to resolve a number of issues.
“It’s going to leave a huge gap.”
Last year the Napthine government withdrew GRIPP’s funding in favour of a service agreement with a consortium-run Youth Health and Rehabilitation Service.
Greater Dandenong Council has since been winding down GRIPP for closure at the end of June.
Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams said the program was “another victim of vicious Liberal cuts”, but the new ALP government is yet to commit to reviving GRIPP.
“I will be discussing the needs of our community with the minister in the time ahead, and will emphasise the importance of doing all we can to eradicate violent crime and create meaningful pathways for our youth,” she said.
Families and Children Minister Jenny Mikakos said the government was “supporting young people to address their violent behaviour and reduce the risk of future offending” and would monitor demand for those services.
She backed the Youth Health and Rehabilitation Service, which runs individual counselling and the group-based Adolescent Violence Intervention Program (AVIP).
AVIP, however, is restricted to inmates at Parkville’s juvenile detention centre.
A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said an early intervention service and a Keeping Families Safe program was also run in Melbourne’s south-east.
