8. Conclusion

On this page:

• 8.1 Summary of value created
• 8.2 Insights

This section summarises the conclusions of the SROI analysis.

8.1 Summary of value created

This project projected the costs and expected benefits of Helping Hand and Linking Youth over five years. Stakeholder consultation was a key component of the analysis in order to identify and understand the changes likely to be created in the future. The SROI analysis then measured and valued the outcomes forecast to be experienced by stakeholders.

The Helping Hand and Linking Youth program has a substantial impact on the lives of young Aboriginal people in Inverell, New South Wales who have been incarcerated or are at risk of incarceration. This has positive flow-on effects for the young people's families, the community and the justice system.

The total value created by the program is the unique value created by Helping Hand and Linking Youth for the stakeholders attributable to the projected five year investment. The following table is a summary of the value that is forecast to be created for each stakeholder group.

Our analysis indicates that Helping Hand and Linking Youth is forecast to deliver $7.8 million of social value in a five year period between FY15 and FY19. Based on a projected investment of $1.4 million, this results in an SROI ratio of 6:1. That is, approximately $6 of value is forecast to be created for every $1 invested in Helping Hand and Linking Youth activities. If the anticipated funding from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (approx. $216k per annum) is considered independently, the Social Return on Investment ratio is 7:1.

Due to the program preventing young people from engaging in anti-social and criminal behaviour, it is forecast that it will be possible for the justice system to reallocate resources that would ordinarily be used to address these issues. Based on average policing, courts, juvenile justice and detention costs, this equates to almost $471k per annum¹⁴, which is far greater than the amount that is expected to be invested in the program. The SROI ratio is 2:1 when only justice outcomes are included.

8.2 Insights

The Helping Hand and Linking Youth program's intensive support model leads to a holistic transformation of young people's lives that will enable them to break the cycle of offending and re-offending. It has a number of critical elements:

Long-term, tailored approach

This analysis suggests that intensive rather than short term or piecemeal support is required to transform the lives of young people with high support needs who experience multiple risk factors for offending, such as alcohol and drug use, mental health and family dysfunction.

A successful transition to adulthood requires the young people to have their basic needs met (such as having a safe place to stay), to engage in meaningful activities and to develop positive connections to others. The program achieves this by focusing on the underlying causes of offending and providing an unwavering support for the young people, which many have not experienced in the past. Movement through these stages of development, as documented in Section 4.4 and summarised in Figure 4.4, are the long-term benefits of reduced offending and reduced incarceration.

It takes a long time to reap all the benefits of the program; however even relatively small changes experienced by the young people are significant given the challenges they face in their lives.

Mentoring relationship integrated into support

Mentoring is a key component of the program's success, as it allows a focus on goal setting, personal growth and maximising the young person's potential. Mentoring is carried out by the program manager and the Aboriginal Mentor, in both a structured and unstructured way that is tailored to the needs and stage of development of the young person.

Mentoring facilitates the achievement of all of the outcomes by the young people. It contributes to the establishment of trust between the young person and the program manager / Aboriginal Mentor, which allows the young person to learn from these adult role models and emulate their behaviour.

A critical element of the mentoring is the mentors' similar experiences to the young people, which makes them easier to relate to and makes the support grounded to the young people's own experience.

Engagement with culture and Elders

The program assists the young people to connect or re-connect with their Aboriginal culture. This takes place in a variety of forms including by introducing the young people to Aboriginal Elders in the community, spending time in the Men's Shed for young men and Aboriginal Elders to meet and share experiences, and cultural and art activities.

The level of engagement in cultural aspects of the program depends on the young person; some become more involved in this aspect of the program than others. For those that do engage, they experience numerous benefits including feeling a sense of belonging to a community, more pride in themselves and their role in the community and increased connection to culture.

Strong partnerships with other service providers and the justice system

The program manager has fostered relationships with a range of service providers in the community including drug and alcohol counsellors, education providers, homelessness services and government agencies.

This has two main consequences. The first is that it creates collaboration - the program manager works with other service providers to deliver activities or programs tailored to the needs of the young people. These include art making, cultural activities, and short courses developed with TAFE that are relevant to or popular with the young people. The result is greater impact for the young people through pooling of resources and skills of multiple service providers.

The second main consequence is that the young people are more likely to engage with the other service providers and receive better care and support as a result of the program. The program is one of the few Aboriginal service providers in Inverell, and it has developed a strong rapport with the local Aboriginal community, including the families and significant others of the young people and the young people themselves. They feel more comfortable reaching out to the program manager than many other service providers in the community. As a result of the program, including through the program manager attending appointments with the young people, the connection between the young people and other services providers is strengthened and the young people benefit from the services.

The effectiveness of these partnerships is heavily reliant on the personal relationships of the program manager with other service providers.

Intermediary for the justice system

As a result of the program, the number of young people from Inverell and surrounding areas who are in juvenile detention is less. This came through strongly in stakeholder consultations including consultation with the program manager about the experiences of current and past cohorts of young people who have been involved with the program. . Between 2012 and 2014, 71 per cent of the young people involved in the program did not reoffend (22 of 31 clients).¹⁵ This compares favourably to multiple studies of youth recidivism that have found the juvenile reoffending rate to be 68 per cent (i.e. only 32% did not reoffend).¹⁶

Those involved in administering the justice system, especially the local police force, benefit from the closeness of the LTC staff with the local Aboriginal community as well as the trust and respect the program receives. The local police rely on the program manager to bridge the gap between the Aboriginal community and themselves, as they acknowledge that many people are unwilling to engage with police without the program manager playing an intermediary role.

The program is also beginning to increase efficiency in the local court system by influencing the sentencing of young people who are part of the program. It is becoming increasingly common for the courts to include participation in the program as part of a young person's bail conditions. Through this, the program facilitates less young people in detention immediately and, since rates of recidivism are high among young people, less young people in detention in the future.

The financial benefit that the justice system experiences as a result of the program is a reallocation of resources that would ordinarily be used up in addressing antisocial behaviour, offending and detention of the young people in the program.

Due to the program preventing young people from engaging in anti-social and criminal behaviour, it is forecast that it will be possible for the justice system to reallocate resources that would ordinarily be used to address these issues. Based on average policing, courts, juvenile justice and detention costs, this equates to almost $471k per annum¹⁷, which is far greater than the amount that is expected to be invested in the program. The SROI ratio is 2:1 when only justice outcomes are included.