All programs

Emotional regulation and impulse control (ERIC) is an evidence-informed, change-oriented program designed to encourage healthy social and emotional development. ERIC examines the underlying issues that young people may have with emotional regulation and impulse control rather than separately targeting issues of mental health, justice, or substance misuse.

Emotional regulation and impulse control are associated with good mental health and wellbeing. The program is designed to encourage healthy social and emotional development. This occurs through teaching young people skills to better identify, and manage their emotions, manage impulsivity, and make better decisions which leads to better behaviours.

Changing habits and reaching targets (CHART) is an evidence-based, intervention program that aims to help reduce the risk of young people reoffending by changing behaviour. CHART supports young people to reflect on their offending thinking and behaviour, and to develop skills to reduce future offending.

With the support of a Youth Justice case worker, each young person will complete the following program units:

• mapping my offences
• motivation to change
• thinking and offending
• problem solving
• lifestyle balance
• relapse prevention.

The program includes 6 additional units:

• healthy relationships
• violence
• motor vehicle offending – delivered with the Re-thinking our attitude to driving (ROAD) program
• drugs and alcohol
• living independently
• education and work.

The Youth Justice case worker will assess which, and how many, of the second group of units will be beneficial for the young person to address their offending behaviours.

How the program works

The young person and their Youth Justice case worker will work through the CHART program together at their regular appointments.

Length of the program

It will take the young person about 16–32 sessions with their Youth Justice case worker to cover the introduction to the program and complete the first 6 units. Each sessions will take about 30–45 minutes.

The young person's case worker will talk to them about which additional units they may need to complete—and how many sessions it will take.

Re-thinking our attitude to driving (ROAD) is an evidence-informed, change-oriented group program that targets young people with motor vehicle offences, or at risk of becoming involved in motor vehicle offences.

ROAD aims to reduce motor vehicle related offending by exploring the motivations behind unsafe motor vehicle behaviours. Young people are supported to explore thoughts, feelings, and behaviours about their motor vehicle offending and the impact it had on victims, themselves, their family, and the community.

The program develops the young person's awareness of the consequences of unsafe motor vehicle behaviours by building on concepts of victim empathy, understanding emotions, and the connections between thoughts and actions.

ROAD is delivered together with the CHART program to address motor vehicle reoffending.

Aggression replacement training (ART) is an evidence-based, change-oriented group program for young people who have shown violent behaviour or have been found guilty of a violent offence. ART helps young people to manage their anger and aggression by influencing positive thinking and moral value development.

ART aims to build pro-social skills, enhance positive communication, develop strategies to reduce aggression and regulation emotions, and build capacity for young people to consider the consequences of their behaviour.

What will they learn

The training has 3 parts:

• skill streaming – learning appropriate ways to respond to different situations and how to talk to someone about what is upsetting them
• anger control – learning how to keep control and calm down when they feel angry about something
• moral reasoning – learning to see what it's like to be in someone else's shoes and see how their anger can affect other people.

The young person will be supported when practicing using these skills in the real world.

Who will be there

The program will be run by Youth Justice staff who are specially trained in delivering the ART program. The trainers will be the same people each week.

ART is a group program. The young person will complete the program with 4–5 other young people. No one new will join the group after the first week.

Length of the program

The program will run for 10 weeks. There will usually be 3 sessions a week. Each session lasts about 1 hour. If the young person misses a session, they will need to make it up.

The young person's Youth Justice case worker will talk to them about when the program will start. They will also talk about how the program runs.

The program is intensive and structured over the 10 weeks so that it can help the young person over a period of time to develop and practise skills for conflict resolution.

Being referred to the program

The young person can only be referred by:

• a court
• Youth Justice service centre staff
• youth detention centre staff.

The 72-hour transition support program is an evidence-based program delivering intensive support to high-risk young offenders during their first 72 hours released from detention. The service provides additional hours of support during weekends and evenings with the aim of reducing reoffending in newly released young people.

72-hour transition support is provided to both the young person and their families during their transition out of detention. With the aim to reduce reoffending behaviour with community-based, culturally safe and trauma informed support.

The support program also works on early intervention with siblings of young offenders at risk of offending behaviour. The service only works with families and young people who elect to participate in the program.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander family wellbeing services offer intensive and culturally appropriate assistance to First Nations young people and their families. Providing access to Indigenous youth and family workers to work with young people at risk of entering the youth justice system.

The service provides culturally appropriate assistance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families struggling with a young person's behaviour including connecting them with specialised services to develop family plans and re-engage young people with their community and culture.

The service aims to provide support to young people and their families to prevent offending behaviour and involvement in the youth justice system. As part of their role, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wellbeing services work alongside Youth Justice service centres and family support to establish relationships and protocols.

Additional court and legal aid resources provides additional resources to support courts and legal aid on their processes. This includes resources to speed up bail applications, decision making and other court processes to keep young people out of court and reduce the use of custody.

Additional resources are provided to help courts and legal aid keep up with demands and complexity of youth justice legislation. The service aims to provide additional support when needed to ensure court and legal processes are completed quickly.

Alternative diversion programs (ADPs) are tailored programs for young people with the aim of addressing the young person's behaviour and reducing their chances of reoffending.

ADPs are available in circumstances where a young person's offence has been referred to restorative justice, and a restorative justice conference (RJC) cannot be held. This can be due to several reasons, such as the person harmed by the offence has chosen not to participate in the conference. Other possibilities could include the offence referred has no direct victim—driving without a licence or some drug-related offences would qualify.

Youth Justice workers design unique ADPs to suit the young person and the offence they have committed. The causes of a young person's offence are taken into consideration when designing the ADP.

ADPs can be in the form of:

• actions that the young person needs to do to repair the harm
• an activity that strengthens the young person's relationship with their family or community
• attending an educational program
• attending a service or skill workshop.

ADPs are only available for certain restorative justice referral types:

• a direct police referral to restorative justice
• if the court deems that the police should have referred the offence to restorative justice (known as a Section 24A referral)
• the court decides the offence would be better dealt with by restorative justice (known as a court-diversion referral).

Below are examples of how restorative justice referrals may be completed through an alternative diversion program.

Example 1: Victim chooses not to participate in a RJC

A young person is referred for 3 counts of trespass because they have been hanging out on the roof of a business without permission and refusing to leave when asked.

The young person admits to the offences during an interview with the police and the police officer decides to refer the offence to a RJC.

The business owner and victim of the trespass decide not to be involved in the conference.

The young person meets with a Youth Justice worker and tells them they do not go to school and get bored during the day, but would be interested in a job in construction. The young person also realises their actions have affected multiple people—their family in that their parent has had to take the day off work to attend the police station, and the business owner as they have lost business as a result of the young person's offence.

An ADP is designed together with Youth Justice, the young person and their parent, with all parties agreeing on a program to help address the young person's needs and reduce their likelihood of reoffending. The young person agrees to the following:

• apply for a White Card (construction) training course through the employment service
• apply for 3 jobs
• write a letter to the business owner to apologise and tell them the steps they are taking to make better choices.

The ADP aims to keep the young person busy and connect them to meaningful work in the community. It also provides an opportunity for the young person to show to the business owner and their family that they are trying to make positive changes. Once completed the referral is close.

Example 2: No direct victim involved

A young person is referred to court for 1 count of possession of dangerous drugs after being caught smoking cannabis in the local park. They appear in court, admit to the offences, and the magistrate refers the offence to restorative justice.

The young person meets with the convenor and explains they go to school but often leave early to smoke cannabis as they get frustrated and angry a lot, and do not know any other way to deal with it. As there is no direct victim involved, the offence is referred to Youth Justice for an ADP.

Together, the young person, their carer and a Youth Justice worker design an ADP, with the young person agreeing to the following:

• complete 4 sessions of the emotional regulation and impulse control program with the Youth Justice worker
• spend an hour each weekend picking up litter at the local park supervised by their carer.

The agreed ADP will be completed within 4 weeks, aiming to provide the young person with opportunities to keep them from reoffending.

The bail support program is offered to young people at risk of being remanded in custody, by providing support needed to comply with their bail conditions. Bail support is delivered by non-government organisations to provide basic needs and connect young people to housing, education, health, and family support with the aim to reduce reoffending.

A court or case worker will refer a young person for bail support if they deem a lack of support. Stable accommodation will be a contributing factor to being remanded in custody. Local bail support services will discuss with parents, carers, and the young person to find suitable alternatives to family arrangements or accommodation to enable bail conditions to be met and prevent the young person being remanded in custody.

Locations

• Brisbane North
• Brisbane South
• Bundaberg
• Caboolture
• Cairns
• Cherbourg
• Gold Coast
• Hervey Bay
• Innisfail
• Ipswich
• Logan
• Mackay
• Mount Isa
• Redcliffe
• Roma
• Rockhampton
• Toowoomba and South West
• Townsville North
• Townsville South
• Western Districts.

Black chicks talking is a cultural program for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander young women. It supports cultural connections to community and identity and explores cultural histories through storytelling and yarning circles.

Read the factsheet (PDF, 259KB) to learn more.

Community youth response and diversion (CYRD) is an early intervention and diversion program, with the aim to reduce the number of young people in watchhouses or detention and risk of reoffending. CYRD delivers locally driven and coordinated services to achieve the best response for each location.

The services provided by CYRD targets young people across various touchpoints to reduce offending or reoffending likelihood. Working with community-based organisations to deliver culturally appropriate alternatives to charging and remanding young people in custody.

CYRD aims to provide 4 key components:

• after hours services for police to divert young people to instead of remanding them in custody
• case management via intensive support to young people and their families
• education support for young people who are at risk of, or who have disengaged from education
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural mentoring support with a trusted adult mentor for the young person to gain a better understanding of their history and kinship.

Locations

• Brisbane South
• Cairns
• Gold Coast
• Ipswich
• Logan
• Townsville North
• Townsville South.

The conditional bail program (CBP) supports at-risk young people whilst on bail to remain in the community, with an aim to reduce the risk of reoffending and breaching bail conditions. The program aims to connect young offenders with gaining access to services and develop skills.

A CBP is issued to young offenders who the court believes is at risk of not following their bail conditions. As part of the program, a youth justice officer is assigned to young offenders on bail, helping them participate in positive activities, with access to services including:

• TAFE and other education
• life and social skills programs
• apprenticeships and traineeships
• sporting and recreational programs
• community supports.

The CBP aims to provide confidence to the courts that young people will receive individualised and intensive supervision whilst they are on bail through their youth justice officer, including recent additions to provide support hours during weekends and evenings for young people on a CBP.

Locations

Available across Queensland

Early action groups provide intensive coordination of services and support to young people with a high risk of offending. Working together, Queensland Police and other key government representatives provide early intervention responses to address factors contributing to young people's offending behaviour.

Early action groups provide tailored services to young people's needs and risks, including support towards family functioning, educational disengagement, substance use, and offending behaviour. The service works with young people aged 8–16 years with a high risk of criminal behaviour, with the aim to reduce the risk of offending and provide support to young people across select areas of Queensland.

As part of the early action groups initiative, the Queensland Government established the Townsville Stronger Communities initiative to target offending in Townsville.

Locations

• Cairns
• Mount Isa
• Townsville North
• Townsville South.

Electronic monitoring (EM) devices are issued to young people aged 16 years and above as part of their bail conditions. Imposed on young offenders benefiting from more intensive bail conditions including indictable offences and a likelihood to reoffend once out on bail.

EM devices use GPS to track the location on young offenders out on bail who have committed crimes or suspected of crimes in the community to monitor, supervise and support repeat offenders whilst in the community. The use of EM devices aims to provide a higher level of supervision and support during weekends and evenings, delivering more support to families and young offenders during these out-of-hours times.

The devices will be used amongst young offenders living in nominated areas across Queensland, alongside other services like family support, stable accommodation and tailored case management to prevent young people on bail from reoffending or breaking their bail conditions.

Locations

• Brisbane North
• Gold Coast
• Logan
• Moreton
• Townsville.

Enhanced youth and family wellbeing, in partnership with Indigenous family wellbeing services, works with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and families to access the support they need to improve social, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing.

The aim of the service is to provide support for parents and families of young people at risk of offending or reoffending, and works to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to deliver culturally safe and responsive services that support their children and young people.

By working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples—elders, community leaders and families—the collective purpose is to reduce the rate of offending and reoffending in their communities.

Locations

• Brisbane
• Caboolture
• Cairns
• Gold Coast
• Ipswich
• Logan
• Mackay
• Mount Isa
• Redcliffe
• Rockhampton
• Tablelands and Cassowary Coast
• Toowoomba and South West
• Townsville
• Western Districts.

Family-led decision making uses a culturally safe decision-making process that involves:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families
• community stakeholders including community-controlled organisations
• Youth Justice officers.

It empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to make positive decisions to achieve change in their young people's:

• behaviour
• safety
• ongoing cultural and practical support needs.

Family-led decision making reconnects and heals a young person's connection to their culture.

Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Protection Peak provide program support to the funded community-controlled organisations.

Locations

• Brisbane and Moreton Bay region
• Cairns in the Far North Queensland region
• South East region
• Toowoomba in the South West region.

Intensive bail initiative (IBI) is a program that works with young people on bail, exiting detention or at risk of reoffending. IBI aims to provide support to young offenders aged 10–17 years and their families, with the purpose of reducing rates of remand and limiting the rates of reoffending whilst on bail.

Operating in nominated catchment areas across Queensland, the initiative connects young people to regular contact with case work assistance to help meet their bail conditions.

Working across 3 main support areas, the initiative will provide:

• bail support – helping address the problems faced by young people and their families with accessing court and legal representation
• family partnership – prioritising case work with family members of young people who have been deemed serious reoffenders with complex and extreme needs. Providing support to improve safety conditions, develop parenting strengths and stability within the family
• a community connector – following up on referrals from youth co-responder teams, ensuring young people connect with families and communities, including specialist services like health, disability services, and education.

Locations

• Brisbane North
• Caboolture
• Gold Coast
• Logan
• Townsville.

Intensive family support works with vulnerable families with children and young people at risk of involvement in the statutory protection system. Providing information, advice and referrals to young people and families, assessing their needs, and connecting to local services.

Intensive family support services are consent-based providing case management services, connecting families with young people to local support services in select areas of Queensland. The support service aims to provide vulnerable families with young people to relevant services to best meet their needs.

Locations

• Brisbane North
• Caboolture
• Gold Coast
• Innisfail
• Mount Isa
• Redcliffe
• Toowoomba and South West
• Townsville.

The JTYouGotThis program is a community-based program with the aim of engaging young people in social activities to build confidence and connection to their community whilst reducing and addressing offending and anti-social behaviour.

By providing young people with the tools to prevent subsequent offending, this program helps young people to build confidence and personal independence, provides mentoring, cultural engagement, goal setting and post-program support.

Locations

• Cairns
• Mount Isa
• Townsville North
• Townsville South.

Legal advocacy bail support provides young people at risk of entering the youth justice system with additional support to keep them in the community and out of detention. The services works with young people on bail or re-entering the community after being released from detention to provide bail support and legal advocacy services.

Legal advocacy and bail support services have been enhanced across Queensland to assist legal advocates and provide legal advice and information to young people in the youth justice system. The legal advocates represents and provide legal advice to young people, making applications for bail and provide expertise for local legal representatives.

Locations

Available across Queensland

Mount Isa transitional hub is a diversion response program to provide out of business hours, community integrated and culturally safe support to young people who are at risk of offending and entering the young justice system. The hub aims to provide a safe place and assistance for young people, particularly young people on the streets at night to divert them from offending behaviour.

The hub supports young people and their families by providing after-hours support with the goal of keeping young people out of custody, and helps young people transition back into their families and communities.

Locations

• Mount Isa

Multi-agency collaborative panels (MACP) is a group of government and non-government organisations working together to improve and coordinate services to meet the needs of young people, increase community safety and address systemic issues.

By working together, MACP aims to reduce the contributing factors to young people's offending – including young people engaged in serious repeat offending, and ensuring current and emerging needs of young people and their families are being met.

To achieve this, MACP works on identifying themes and trends to improve service responses, address local barriers to enable best use of existing resources, and improve communication across key agencies to support the reduction in offending for target groups.

Locations

• Brisbane
• Bundaberg
• Caboolture
• Cairns
• Central West
• Gold Coast
• Hervey Bay
• Innisfail
• Ipswich
• Logan
• Mackay
• Mount Isa
• Redcliffe
• Redlands
• Rockhampton
• Sunshine Coast
• Tablelands and Cassowary Coast
• Toowoomba and South West
• Townsville
• Western Districts.

Expressions of interest for a new Intensive On Country trial opened on 21 February 2024, and closed 20 March 2024. Organisations who have made an expression of interest to provide property or a program will be notified by Youth Justice of the outcome of their application.

The Queensland Government is trialling the new Intensive On Country program, which will provide a longer residential cultural program that expands on the learnings from the current On Country program.

The trial will deliver a wider range of supports to young people and their families to deal with a range of needs that contribute to offending including mental and physical health, substance misuse, relationship with social media and accessing accommodation.

Services will be delivered by or in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations.

On Country program

In March 2020, the Queensland Government announced a pilot of the On Country program. The program focuses on young people who are:

• Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
• aged 10–17 years old
• repeat offenders with high and complex needs.

The pilot sites are:

• Cairns
• Mount Isa
• Townsville.

The announcement came after petitions and proposals from communities across North Queensland for On Country services. The government committed about $5.6 million over 4 years to pilot the program.

International and domestic literature suggests that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander designed and led justice programs consistently outperform those that are externally developed.

The program aims to:

• reduce rates of offending and reoffending
• strengthen young people's cultural and spiritual connections to land, sea and sky through the active efforts and participation of local community leaders, Elders and Traditional Owners
• strengthen family relationships and connections with the community while promoting positive self-identity
• re-engage young people with education, training and employment
• refer young people and families to other support services in the local community.

The local pilots are designed and delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations. They offer an immersive On Country experience and intensive case work support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.

On Country is available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. The length of the response is dependent on need and may include:

• mentoring
• On Country camps
• cultural activities.

Referrals are made by:

• Youth Justice officers
• Queensland Police Service
• young people's families.

Contracts to deliver the pilot program were awarded after an open tender process. The program is currently delivered by:

• Cairns – Jabalbina Yalanji Aboriginal Corporation
• Townsville – Gr8Motive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation.

Read the findings of an independent evaluation of the On Country program.

Queensland youth partnership initiative (QYPI) is an early intervention program that works to reduce anti-social behaviour and youth offending by providing outreach services and activities to young people in accessible public spaces such as shopping centre precincts.

The initiative delivers a multi-agency response in planning recreational activities, meetings, and barbecues to provide young people with information, advice and referrals to support services. Activities are tailored to local needs and connect young people with youth and welfare services, transport support, and supervised and structured pro-social activities, and other services to support their individual needs.

Locations

• Brisbane North
• Gold Coast
• North Lakes
• Rockhampton
• Toowoomba.

The youth drug and alcohol treatment service provides support for young people when drugs and alcohol are factors contributing to their offending.

The aim of this service is to reduce the impact of drugs and alcohol on young people's offending and reoffending by providing a safe space for affected young people to undertake treatment programs whilst addressing offending and anti-social behaviour.

The service includes a 10-bed residential facility in select locations in Queensland and provides a 3-month long residential treatment, with a 3-year follow up treatment program for all young people involved in the youth drug and alcohol treatment service.

Locations

• Brisbane North
• Caboolture
• Redcliffe.

The youth and family support service (YFSS) is a free service for at-risk young people aged between 10 and 16 years, and their families. The service is located in Brisbane.

YFSS is available to young people and their families who live in the Brisbane region and young people who are visiting the region.

Who YFSS helps

YFSS helps young people and their families who are at risk of offending or reoffending. They provide help where the young person:

• is in trouble with the police
• is going through or has been through court
• has been referred to youth justice conferencing
• has problems or arguments at home
• has problems with drugs
• has nowhere to live
• has problems at school - including truancy, suspension or exclusion.

How YFSS works

Staff visit clients at a time that suits them, in their home or community (unless they would prefer a different location). YFSS offers short to medium term support and will help young people and their families to:

• clarify their concerns
• find individual and family strengths
• link with community services
• develop strategies to manage current and future issues.

YFSS work closely with other community agencies to make sure that client support is coordinated. They offer opportunities to participate in individual and peer group sessions covering:

• changing habits and reaching targets (CHART)
• aggression replacement training (ART)
• parent support
• other areas of needs.

YFSS also provides referrals to other services for specialist, long-term support.

Referrals

Referrals to YFSS can be made by other government departments, non-government organisations and self-referrals.

YFSS will not copy any service that the client is already receiving. They will not replace or duplicate other services that provide statutory youth justice interventions or child protection interventions. YFSS will only accept a referral if they can add value in meeting the client's needs.

Learn more about the referral service.

Locations

• Brisbane

Youth offender support services deliver intensive support and case management to young people and their families. The service providers community-based, culturally safe and trauma informed support to young people transitioning back into the community after detention.

The service supports young people with transport to court and appointments, assistance with attending court, engaging with community agencies, support young people's families and connecting them back into the community and their culture.

Youth offender support services help young people to:

• be accountable for their behaviour and encourage connection to the community
• be involved in pro-social activities with their families
• improve family relationships
• reconnect with culture, family and community.

Assistance is available to both the young person and their families, connecting each young person to relevant community agencies and services that will meet their needs and help reduce offending and reoffending behaviour.

Outlook Services is a specialised state-wide team within Youth Justice and works with government departments and non-government organisations that help young people who are involved in or at risk of entering the youth justice system.

Outlook Services have a number of resources and services available which include:

• Specialist group programming support (PDF, 171KB) or (DOCX, 766KB): Committed to skill development of youth justice staff and community-based workers, Outlook Services offer group development and facilitation training – a multi-day, residential style training for designing and facilitating group-based programs for vulnerable and high-risk young people. This training has been delivered in various forms to staff and organisations working with vulnerable youth for over 40 years.
• Enhancement of youth-focused programs (PDF, 124KB) or (DOCX, 768KB): Outlook Services uses experiential learning practices and adventure-based learning activities, to work with Youth Justice service centres and community organisations to help young people reflect and make positive change.
• Facilities and site-based services (PDF, 136KB) or (DOCX, 768KB): Outlook Services manages 3 sites across Queensland. The sites are designed to service and support government departments and community organisations by offering a variety of programming, training, conferencing and accommodation facilities. These sites are located in Cairns, Boonah and Crows Nest. Contact each site to find out more information on the facilities and services offered:
  • Cairns (The Northern Outlook – TNO)
    646 Redlynch Road
    REDLYNCH  QLD  4870
    (07) 4255 7598
    TNOB@cyjma.qld.gov.au
  • Boonah (The Sourthern Outlook – TSO)
    4001 Ipswich-Boonah Road
    BOONAH  QLD  4310
    (07) 5460 6700
    outlookbookings@cyjma.qld.gov.au
  • Lake Perseverance Centre, Crows Nest (The Sourthern Outlook – TSO)
    854 Perseverance Dam Road
    CROWS NEST  QLD  4355
    (07) 5460 6700
    outlookbookings@cyjma.qld.gov.au