CARNARVON COMMON GROUND PUTS LOCAL VOICES AT CENTRE OF CRIME PREVENTION
An Aboriginal-led initiative in Carnarvon is changing how the community responds to crime by directing resources towards prevention, healing and early intervention.
Carnarvon Common Ground is a justice reinvestment initiative operating on Yinggarda Country. It brings community members, Elders, service providers and government agencies together to address the conditions that can contribute to offending before people enter — or return to — the justice system.
The initiative was established as Carnarvon experienced rising concern about crime and the effectiveness of services designed outside the region.
Carnarvon Common Ground member Devinia Wainwright told Ngaarda Media that many previous programs had failed to reflect how local people lived or what they needed.
“We’ve seen lots of programs, services and agencies come and go in Carnarvon,” she said.
“We have more incentive to get these programs right, as it affects us — the people that are living here in the area.”
The model is based on justice reinvestment, which seeks to address factors including family breakdown, poverty, unemployment, limited education and training pathways, alcohol and other drug use, and mental health challenges.
The project received $1.4 million in Commonwealth funding to develop Carnarvon’s justice reinvestment strategy and action plan, with the Gascoyne Development Commission supporting its development towards an operational Aboriginal community-controlled organisation.
Carnarvon Common Ground now works across seven community-led priority areas: early childhood and education, youth, justice and safety, employment and economic development, culture, health and wellbeing, and healing.
Its structure includes working groups, an operations team, a board and an Elders Advisory Council, with community members helping to identify priorities and oversee practical responses. About 35 active community members have met regularly during the initiative’s development.
One of its key programs is Banksia In-Reach, which sends Gascoyne Elders and mentors to Banksia Hill Detention Centre to support young people from the region.
The program aims to maintain cultural and community connections while young people are away from Country and establish support for their return home.
Other work includes youth mentoring and workforce development, social and emotional wellbeing programs, local leadership training and juvenile justice team conferencing.
Ms Wainwright said the organisation was not promising an overnight solution. Instead, it was creating a long-term structure in which Aboriginal people held genuine decision-making power.
“Carnarvon Common Ground is a testament to our mob’s strength and self-determination,” she said.
“When we’re given a voice, a seat at the table and genuine decision-making power, we can create pathways that heal, empower and move our community forward.”
Listen to the two-part interview below: