- Youth Action Plan

Feeling and being Safe

Around two per cent of young people felt unsafe or very unsafe alone at home in the day, while 10 per cent felt this way at home alone after dark.

Nineteen per cent of young women aged 18–24 years felt unsafe or very unsafe home alone after dark, higher than for any other age group of either sex.

Only two per cent of young men of this age felt unsafe or very unsafe at home after dark. This was despite the fact that young men were the most likely of any age group of either sex to have experienced actual or threatened violence (21 per cent).

Young people were more likely than people of other ages to have experienced a break-in or attempted break-in (around 15 per cent).

Young people involved in crime represent a small percentage of the state’s youth population.

Information recently available to the Department of Juvenile Justice shows that for every 1,000 people in New South Wales between the ages of 10 to 17 less than 10 have a criminal matter finalised in the Children’s Court.

What we know
What we are doing
What we will do

What we know

Being safe is essential to young people’s wellbeing. Experience of violence at home can lead to depression and anxiety, alcohol and substance abuse, and self-harm. Young people who live in an unsafe neighbourhood may be at risk of harm and have more chance of developing anti-social behaviours.

Although only a small number of young people are involved in crime, they are more likely to do so if they are not connected to their family and community.

For young people involved in crime, the best way to help is to make sure that agencies work in partnership with community support services and young people.

Young people are also less likely to re-offend if they are given the opportunity to take responsibility for the impact of their actions through rehabilitation programs and alternatives to custody.

To ensure young people’s safety, it is important that we address:

family issues, especially family violence, abuse and neglect
bullying
injuries
youth homelessness.

What we are doing

NSW is fundamentally a safe environment and the State Plan focuses on addressing the challenges of maintaining safety and harmony in our communities.

We are improving the safety of young people at home, at leisure, in schools, on the roads and at work.

We also have:

made Working with Children Checks compulsory for teachers, child care workers and employees in many child-related positions involving direct, unsupervised access to children and young people.
introduced more demanding requirements for getting a full driver’s licence.
required businesses to provide a safe workplace for all workers, including young people.
produced the youth version of the Charter of Victims Rights – Youth Version (2002) to help young victims understand their rights.
helped raise young people’s feelings of safety by addressing bullying in our schools and family and domestic violence.

We will continue to:

build cultural pride in communities, promoting positive types of recreation and improving access to transport.
help young people in unsafe family situations by improving the response of child protection practitioners.
help young people who do not have safe and suitable housing with social housing, emergency housing and out-of home programs.
use warnings and other alternatives to formal detention for under 18s through the Young Offenders Act 1997. We are making legal advice available to under 18s who are suspected of committing an offence.

What we will do

30. Support the Tirkandi Inaburra Cultural and Development Centre, a youth residential cultural ‘outstation’ centre for Aboriginal young men who offend or who are at risk of offending.

31. Provide diversionary programs for Aboriginal boys with intellectual or mental disabilities to avoid re-offending.

32. Support the Moving Forward and Negotiating Consent programs in schools and communities in Orana/Far West to support and train young people in developing positive relationships and to reduce the risk of developing abusive relationships in later life.

33. Develop a booklet What Now for Youth, a resource for young people regarding services and entitlements they can obtain to recover from the effects of being the victim of a crime.

34. Develop COURTWISE, an interactive website to help young people understand the legal processes they may face as victims/witnesses in court.

35. Over the next two years, deliver the Young Offenders Act training program to 24 Aboriginal Community Justice Groups to provide an introduction to cautions and youth justice conferencing.

36. Create stronger links between police and schools and prevent problems before they take hold, with 40 School Liaison Police in NSW high schools. It is expected that every high school in NSW will get at least one visit from their School Liaison Police every 12 months, with some schools receiving more visits depending on their level of need. The program will teach students about crime prevention and safety issues as well addressing at risk behaviour.

37. Adapt the Integrated Case Management program developed under the Government’s NSW Youth Partnerships with Arabic Speaking and Pacific Communities to assist Local Area Commands to enhance relationships with specific culturally diverse communities where there are young people at risk of offending or re-offending.

38. Develop a family work model and crisis accommodation supports for young people with complex needs in the juvenile justice system.

39. Make sport and recreation safer through the Sport Rage Prevention, Harassment Free Sport, Play by the Rules programs and child protection strategies.

40. Reduce harm associated with alcohol use in and around sporting clubs and venues through the Good Sports program.

41. Promote safe transport options for young people at licensed venues.

42. Teach school students conflict resolution skills as part of the peer mediation program.

43. Support Our Journey to Respect, an intergenerational violence prevention program for young Aboriginal men who have been, or who are at risk of being charged with a violent offence. The program specifically addresses offending behaviours and aims to reduce the intensity and frequency of violent offending by Aboriginal males.

44. Provide extra out-of-home care resources including more caseworkers and specialist staff to strengthen the out-of-home care system to better support young people, their families and carers.