Wednesday, 23 February 2022

Les Twentyman Foundation

Dr CUMMING (Western Metropolitan) (17:57): (1761) I would like to just acknowledge the ribbon that I am wearing tonight, which is for ovarian cancer.

But my adjournment matter is to the Minister for Youth Justice in the other place, and the action that I seek is for the minister to review and increase the funding for the Les Twentyman Foundation to enable them to extend the Youth Support Service and to broaden their service provisions. The Les Twentyman Foundation has delivered support for at-risk youth for over 30 years. For over 10 years they have delivered the Youth Support Service, a program that deals with young people between the ages of 10 and 17 at their first point of contact with the law.

The Youth Support Service aims to help young people at risk of entering the youth justice system. Referrals to the Youth Support Service are made by Victoria Police, youth justice court advisers and internally by agencies providing services to young people. The program delivers intense outreach support and aims to reconnect the young person with their family, their school and their community. Working closely with young people, they comprehensively assess their needs and assist them to develop positive life goals and access other support services that they require.

The young person participates on a voluntary basis. The Les Twentyman Foundation is currently funded to deliver this highly successful program in Hobsons Bay, Moonee Valley and Maribyrnong until the end of June next year. They would love to continue to deliver this much-needed service and broaden their services. They are seeing more younger clients presenting with complex mental health issues and suicidal ideation.

With increased funding, the foundation can increase the number of youth workers, increase their service levels and provide on-call, after-hours and weekend services. They help the people of the west. They help our children keep out of courtrooms. They help our children stay in classrooms. The Les Twentyman Foundation deserves an increase in their funding. This government needs to increase the youth services in the west, and it is just not good enough to make them go begging or filling out grant applications when they have been doing their utmost for the west for the last 30 years. I urge the minister to increase the funding now.