Moree

In Moree, the Aboriginal community are coming together in a collaborative way that recognises their strengths, with a central focus on elevating the voices of young people and leading decision making.
The community involved with JR have voiced their concerns about fair access to education, family services, mental health issues, and supporting carers and families doing it tough to support their kids. They have also been developing a data and evaluation framework to monitor and track progress according to community expectations.

Some well-known initiatives that Moree JR have been involved in are the Youth Block Party, Youth Bail Project with Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS), and the Saturday Night Program.

Youth Bail Project

The bail project in Moree is reviewing bail conditions that are negative or are no longer appropriate to the changed circumstances of young people. When a young person is apprehended Police submit bail conditions to the Aboriginal Legal Service and a specialist Children’s Solicitor reviews its appropriateness and whether they comply with the purpose of the Bail Act. The ALS can also review bail from referrals in the community and where bail conditions need to be changed, they are listed for hearing before the Local Court. The interventions so far have a very high level of success and positive outcome for young people involved, and there has been a positive influence on the Police making better bail determinations.

Youth Forum & Block Party

In April 2022 where for one of the first times young Aboriginal people in Moree were able to decide what they wanted to happen in their community. Nearly 800 young people attended the two events.

The idea for the Youth Forum came directly from young people in Moree that the JR team had been working with – they had been telling them they wanted more of a voice in what happens in Moree and felt like they weren’t being heard. They wanted an opportunity to come together in a safe place, to learn from each other and explore different ways of supporting other young people. At the forum they talked about wanting service systems and organisations to listen to their ideas and aspirations, and actively work with them to make change.

They expressed a concern around crime and drug use in their community; a lack of support for them across all age groups; and the stigma of their reputation and the subsequent police targeting of them as a group. To make their lives better they identified the following priorities:

• better and more holistic mental health responses
• improved support for drug and alcohol addiction
• more support for their families 
• improved support services and safe spaces for young people after hours
• community services to operate outside of the hours 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday
• more fun things to do in their community
• their voices to be heard more and improve the Moree reputation

Read the Moree Youth Forum Report