Initiatives targeting Recommendation 20

Northern Territory

Irrkerlantyere Learning Centre

Irrkerlantyere Learning Centre is an education and community development program managed by Centralian College in partnership with Ngkarte Mikekenhe Community and Tangentyere Council. The program addresses the needs of a specific extended Indigenous family group in Alice Springs through providing a literacy and numeracy focus for young people and a community development focus for families. It is a locally developed program to address a specific local issue.

Before the establishment of the program these young people rarely attended secondary school. It was found that the most successful way of engaging this specific group of disadvantaged youth was by providing opportunities for the whole family and to have a family focus on learning and community development. Consequently the program has adopted an inter-generational approach to service delivery where the holistic needs of youth and families are addressed.

Through this partnership approach and through linking with other support agencies individual students are cased managed and have Individual Learning Plans as well as participating in social and emotional well-being programs through linked agencies.

Target group: Young eastern Arrernte people and families

Coverage: Alice Springs

Timeframe: Ongoing

Responsible agency: Department Employment, Education and Training

Website: www.education.nt.gov.au

NT Police Juvenile Pre-Court Diversion Scheme - Community Youth Development Units (CYDU)

The NT Police Juvenile Diversion Units are presently facilitating the development of CYDUs throughout Territory remote communities. These units will develop specific plans for youth at risk in these communities and further provide opportunities for all youth in the community. CYDUs are already operating in Tennant Creek and Wadeye. The CYDUs apply a holistic approach to the needs of juveniles. This includes consideration of education, health, welfare, sport, recreation, training and employment needs. A priority of the units will be to develop plans that will give a very high priority to education needs in consultation with the local education institution.

Target group: Juveniles and youth

Coverage: Remote communities

Timeframe:

Responsible agency: Northern Territory Police

Website: www.nt.gov.au/pfes/

NT Police Juvenile Pre-Court Diversion Scheme - case management and mentoring services

The NT Government has recently awarded contracts under the Scheme for the provision of $3M in case management and mentoring services. The contracted service providers will attend all police conferences conducted with offending juveniles and assist in the management of juveniles who are referred to programs. These programs will often include education aspects for which the case managers will have to make arrangements with the appropriate agency or institution.

Target group: Juveniles

Coverage: Darwin, Katherine and Alice Springs

Timeframe:

Responsible agency: Northern Territory Police

Website: www.nt.gov.au/pfes/

Proposed Initiative name: Partnerships

1. Local Education Advisory Boards (LEABS)

LEABs will be established in communities to support the full engagement of Indigenous people in improving educational outcomes of Indigenous students in the Northern Territory. Four pilot communities will be selected in 2002.

The aim of the pilots will be to establish educational advisory boards with appropriate community leadership. The pilots could be established in community schools or cluster schools within linguistically and culturally affiliated regions.

LEAB's, with departmental support, will develop community education plans to aid in the implementation of the Department of Employment, Education and Training Indigenous Education 5-Year Strategic Plan, NIELNS and IESIP Agreements.

2. Self Managed Schools

Provision to be made for community control over education decision-making processes, while establishing clear benchmarks for expected improvements.

It is envisioned that the Local Education Advisory Board will be the management group for a self managed school.

This initiative seeks to achieve:

• Local responsibility for the maintenance and development of community well being and human resources
• Community capacity to embrace educational and social change
• Efficient and effective consultation and reporting processes
• Flexible and creative community direction to the school principal for delivery and resourcing of school programs.

3. Ongoing partnership development

Partnerships will foster collaboration from all stakeholders in achieving common goals in education. They will seek to improve Indigenous student outcomes through:

• Engagement and involvement of key local leaders in the development and maintenance of the partnerships
• Building relationships and linkages between relevant stakeholders, activities and programs at the local and regional level.
• Collaborative utilisation of human, material and financial resources.
• Encouragement and support of improved communication through networking between key stakeholders at the community and regional level
• Harnessing expertise, building knowledge, and encouraging and assisting relevant data gathering and research
• Activities such as collaborative planning and development, consultation, two way communication and the gathering of information integral to the successful implementation of the local and regional plans.
• Sharing information and ideas (networking) between organisations and communities across the NT
• Organisational and community based workshops and services aimed at supporting the development and implementation of the strategic plans
• Contact with Commonwealth and Territory officers to foster shared knowledge of government processes and identify and create linkages with broad organisational and community processes.

Target group: Whole Community

Coverage: Territory Wide

Timeframe: 2002 - 2004

Responsible agency: Department Employment, Education and Training

Website: www.education.nt.gov.au