Two early intervention programs to get at-risk Indigenous youth off the streets and into employment will open in Logan, providing mentoring, life skill workshops and cultural connection.
One of the programs will be run by Gunya Meta, a First Nations not-for-profit at Logan Central. It will span 18 months, providing support to 20 local children aged 10-17 over 18 months.
According to Gunya Meta, the program will aim to strengthen emotional regulation, healthy relationships, cultural identity, and family inclusion through transition-to-work training, kinship mentors, cultural immersion, and trauma-informed workshops.Â
Ultimately, it will aim to reduce early criminal behaviours, and empower youth and families.  
“We called our program ‘Strong Warrior Strong Future’ because we believe in our young people,” Gunya Meta’s Aunty Faith said.
“We want to try and work with our families around early intervention. If we can start with our younger ones and educate them, and put the support around them to show there are different ways of life.”
Aunty Faith said the support and mentorship was built around First Nations’ culture.
“We know how to look after our mob, and we know where things have been lacking in the systems.”
She said participants would be asked: “What do you want? Where do you want to go?”
Finally, they will be told: “You can do it.”
“We know this program works because we have run two already,” Aunty Faith said.
“Those kids aren’t reoffending – they are either in school, a traineeship or apprenticeship.”
The other initiative will be a 12-month trauma-informed program for First Nations youth aged 8–17, run by Kirraw Indigenous Corporation at Loganholme.
It will also focus on re-engaging children with education, training, or employment while “strengthening cultural and community connections”.
According to the Queensland government, which is funding both programs, they will achieve a safer and stronger community through “tailored, hands-on learning and holistic support”.
Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber said the programs would help keep Logan’s youth from making poor decisions that lead to a “life of crime”.
“Our kickstarter funding allows for organisations like Gunya Meta to be able to receive the funding they need to turn young lives around,” she said.
“This is important because gold standard early intervention is one way we can ensure that youths don’t end up down a path of crime.
“We can ensure they end up re-engaged in education, into training opportunities, or ultimately into a pathway of employment so they have hope, so they have a brighter future, and ultimately, so we have fewer victims of crime in this state.
“It is breaking the cycle of crime.”
