Community Partnership Innovation Grants

Program details

Applications for 2022-23 Community Partnership Innovation Grants (Round 2) are now closed.

Please continue to check this webpage for news about possible future rounds.

2022-23 Community Partnerships Innovation Grants (Round 2)

Over $3 million in funds was available across Queensland in 2022-2023 for short-term or one-off projects that support young people who are or could become offenders, to change their behaviours and form positive connection with community.

The grant program is designed to support local communities, businesses and organisations in the trial of new ideas and projects that could help improve community safety and respond to drivers of youth crime in their area, and that are designed in partnership with the local community.

Applicants were encouraged to consider proposals that:

  • were innovative and support and build on existing local responses and knowledge to increase community safety and form lasting, meaningful changes and connections for young people.
  • were designed using community knowledge and delivered to meet the needs of the young people, their families, and the broader community.
  • target the unique issues being experienced by local communities, and that are designed in partnership with the local community.
  • demonstrate culturally safe and localised partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities.

Successful grant applications

The 2022-23 Community Partnership Innovation Grant successful recipient projects are:

Compass – Lutheran Community Care ($300,000)

Targeted holistic complex case coordination and intensive case management for at risk, vulnerable young people displaying offending behaviours. This project will target the underlying causes of criminal behaviours, focusing on social and emotional wellbeing. Location: Brisbane

HOPE 4 Life - Holistic Recovery for Young People Impacted by Domestic and Family Violence – Beyond DV ($295,665)

Holistic early intervention to young people affected by domestic and family violence, with the goal of reducing the impact of trauma and minimising the likelihood they will engage in criminal activity. Location: Brisbane

Fire Project – Selectability ($259,331)

An after-hours outreach and mentoring program in Earlville and Edmonton. It includes transportation to return young people home, and referrals for young people to connect them with existing cultural programs and key agencies. Location: Cairns

Youth Into Work – Australian Training Works Group ($299,423)

An Indigenous Group Training Organisation that provides work readiness courses and builds young people’s skills for the workplace, such as communication, teamwork and other interpersonal skills. Location: Cairns

Proud Warrior – Queensland Youth Services ($128,592)

The Proud Warrior project will provide multi-agency intervention for primarily Indigenous young people who are at risk of disengaging from school, young people from low socio-economic households, and cases where young people are known, or their family is known, to police. Location: Mount Isa, Townsville

Back to Community – Save the Children (trading as 54 Reasons) ($300,000)

The ‘Back to Community’ reintegration program will provide trauma-informed, culturally responsive throughcare support for young people whose home country is Mount Isa, Doomadgee or Mornington Island when leaving the Cleveland Youth Detention Centre. Location: Mount Isa

Babbinyuwi Wanda-Rites of Passage – Marigurim Yalaam Indigenous Corporation ($298,980)

A Rites of Passage framework which includes intensive support for young people over six weeks before attending a Rites of Passage camp, followed by another six weeks of assistance. Location: Hervey Bay

T-REK (Together- Respected, Engaged, Kinnected) – Youth off the Streets ($293,500)

Targeted and evidence-based interventions which caters for two main groups, young people leaving detention and returning to the community, and young people who need to re-engage with education.  Cultural groups in Logan who will benefit from the program include First Nations, Pasifika and African communities. Location: Logan

Tribe of Mentors - Circuit Breaker Project – Adam Jeffrey Wenitong ($142,483)

An intensive 30-week immediate response for re-offending young people, including a seven-month cultural project that will provide cultural mentoring and connection to the First Nations community. Location: Toowoomba

RAW Impact On Country - Youth at Risk – Raw Impact International ($300,000)

Cultural connection over an intensive period of seven weeks for at-risk young people, with the option of ongoing engagement in meaningful cultural activities and projects that support the rejuvenation of native title land at the Yumba. Location: Toowoomba

“The Block”: A Community Hub Empowering Connection and Wellbeing – Winangali Infusion ($300,000)

‘The Block’ provides young people in Goondiwindi, and in the New South Wales border towns of Boggabila and Toomelah with a safe and supervised community hub for pro-social opportunities, cultural education, recreational activities and more. Location: Goondiwindi

Unsuccessful grant applications

If your application was unsuccessful, you can request feedback between 17 April and 19 May 2023 by contacting YJ_Grants@cyjma.qld.gov.au. Please ensure you provide your SmartyGrants application number in your request.

Previous grant recipients

View an overview of the successful projects from the Community Partnership Innovation Grants Round 1 (2021-22).

The 2021-22 Community Partnership Innovation Grant successful projects were:

Community Helping Adolescents with New Growth and Endeavours (CHANGE)

CatholicCare Social Service in partnership with Emerge, Good Samaritan College, Bunya Peoples Aboriginal Corporation and Raw Impact

This project brings together the capabilities of five experienced local organisations to deliver wrap-around interventions to support 12 to 17-year-olds who are at risk of becoming entrenched in the justice system. Young people will be assisted with housing, mentoring, education, skill-development, employment, sporting and cultural activities.

Location: Toowoomba

Deterring Drivers program

Dr Shannon Dodd, Australian Catholic University (in partnership)

This project aims to prevent young people stealing cars for joyriding. It will be designed and implemented by researchers and local businesses with expertise in criminology, policing, health and road safety. It will address the dangers of joyriding, while giving participants skills and introducing other activities as an alternative to driving.

Location: Townsville

Disrupting the School to Prison Pipeline

Dr Grace O 'Brien, Queensland University of Technology in partnership with Mindle Bygul Aboriginal Corporation

This project will provide young First Nations people who have been released from youth detention or are a high risk of reoffending with culturally responsive and culturally safe support, education and training opportunities to positively re-engage them with community and reduce recidivism.

Location: Moreton Bay

Elders Cautioning Program pilot

Dr Paul Harnett, Griffith University in partnership with the Inala Elders Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation

This pilot project will divert young people at high risk of offending away from statutory youth justice involvement. Elders, or respected community members, will conduct cautions based on police referrals and will work closely with mental health practitioners to provide support for young people and their families.

Location: Brisbane

KOKO Pasifika Youth Holistic Hub

Village Connect LTD

This project will be the first culturally safe integrated services response for Pasifika young people in Queensland. It will establish wrap-around supports for young people who are offending and their families.

Location: Logan

Overnight On Country Healing Camps

Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation

This project uses interventions that can happen at very short notice to provide cultural and one-on-one support needed to prevent young people from reoffending when they are most vulnerable, that is in the 72 hours after exiting detention.

Location: Cairns

Transition to Community

Fearless Towards Success

This project is an intensive six-month support and training program for young people leaving youth detention. Young people will gain indepdendent living and employability skills to help them successfully join community. The program can integrate with 72-hours post-release plans for young people.

Location: Ipswich

Youth Advocate Program

Life Without Barriers

This project, the Youth Advocate Program, is an evidence-informed intervention that has demonstrated successful outcomes overseas with young people at high risk of reoffending. This is the first trial of the program in Queensland. Young people will be supported by a youth advocate 15 hours per week for up to nine months to learn the skills to change behaviours, learn independence and restore positive relationships.

Location: Gold Coast

Further information

For further information please contact the Department of Children, Youth Justice and Multicultural Affairs at YJ_Grants@cyjma.qld.gov.au