Page 573 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 19 March 2014
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A young women’s group is also a service provided by Gugan Gulwan, designed to assist and prepare participants by providing learning skills, living skills which ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young women are educated and well informed and ensure the best personal development outcome possible. A young mother’s group is also a program that has been successfully provided in the past. It provides education and living skills to young mothers through a network of partnerships and alliances with a range of agencies to ensure that these new mothers and their children are given the best opportunities in life. Currently, this program has been suspended as it has become too challenging to ensure that safe space is available in the existing facilities at the site in Erindale which Gugan Gulwan currently operate out of and, in part, is the reason for my motion today.
In addition to the services provided in-house by Gugan Gulwan, there are a number of off-site services that are provided such as an arts program at the Bimberi detention centre, the lunch program that complements the in-house program but also aims at reaching those in need at various locations across the ACT. The street beat program is also an innovative approach and operates three nights per week. The street beat program is an outreach operation targeting under-18s, with the intent of reducing the instances of young people appearing before the justice system, and also has a focus on preventing binge drinking and promoting sexual and reproductive health and management of smoking and other drug-related issues. All in all, Gugan Gulwan are reaching in excess of 300 Indigenous young people on a weekly basis.
In order for Gugan Gulwan to continue to provide these services and reinstate the young mum’s group and also with a view on the horizon to expanding the suite and scope of existing services, they are in desperate need of more space. Ideally, to maintain the cost-effectiveness of the current programs, the new centre would operate as an annexe to the existing site, that is, the new site would also be able to offer a safe and secure space for meeting room facilities, a fenced outdoor area for young children to play in as well cooking facilities for the provision of a healthy lunch.
Providing services that are focused on assisting the territory’s Indigenous residents in a culturally appropriate manner is critical to ensuring that the continuing trend of Indigenous disadvantage ends. Programs and services targeting youth provide an opportunity to break the cycle of the disadvantaged that often runs through generations.
Whilst I do acknowledge that there are often a number of demands on community space that is available within the territory, these priorities do need to be managed. Organisations need to be given some indications of the options and opportunities that may be on the horizon with regard to space becoming available. Simply adding an organisation to a wait list, with no assurance of facilities ever becoming available, erodes confidence and creates uncertainty not only with the organisation itself but also with those people they do support. In an era of one government, collaboration between directorates to locate and identify suitable accommodation for community organisations should not be as complex as it is proving to be in the case of Gugan Gulwan.
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