Page 3173 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 18 October 2022
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The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations have unique expertise to provide culturally appropriate, culturally safe services and to work with children, young people, adults and families who have often experienced intergenerational trauma and the legacy of colonisation, institutional and individual racism, and past government policies and practices.
The Canberra community is fortunate to have a number of strong and emerging Aboriginal community-controlled organisations across different sectors, each of which demonstrates the value of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership and service delivery. In the child and family support sector, Gugan Gulwan Youth Aboriginal Corporation is the most established of these organisations and aims to protect, nurture and support children, young people and their families as they grow. While Gugan is primarily funded for youth services, in reality we know it supports children, young people and their families from birth, through childhood, into adolescence and adulthood.
At the 2020 election ACT Labor have committed to delivering a purpose-built facility with Gugan to better deliver their essential services. Gugan was established in 1992 and its current building has undergone a range of ad hoc refurbishment since the service moved into its Grattan Court site in 2001. After 30 years supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Canberrans, a purpose-built facility will ensure that Gugan can continue to meet the needs of the community into the future.
The ACT government and Gugan have worked closely to develop plans for the new facility, to be built on the existing site, that will enable expanded services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people and families in a familiar setting. The new building will include a reception area, staff workspaces, youth work and homework spaces, function and exhibition spaces, art and music facilities and indoor and outdoor play areas. This budget includes more than $19 million to fully fund the construction of this facility.
This important investment in the community-controlled sector in this budget sits alongside work across government, including, in the health portfolios, the continued development of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander alcohol and other drug residential rehabilitation service, in partnership with Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services, as part of the renewed Watson health precinct; the transition to a residential program at the Ngunnawal Bush Healing Farm; and the establishment and evaluation of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander specific standalone suicide prevention, postvention and after care service in the ACT, being delivered by my colleague Minster Davidson.
All of this really important work is of course informed by our partnerships with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, including through the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Agreement 2019-2028 and the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.
The statutory child protection and out-of-home care system is one of the most challenging and complex areas of service delivery under the ACT government’s and
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