December 2013 Women and Mentoring: Report on Regional and Outer Urban Options PRODUCED BY MARGARET FRIED FOR WOMEN AND MENTORING PTY LTD Table of Contents Background ........................................................................................................................3 The project brief .................................................................................................................3 Recommendation ...............................................................................................................4 Mentoring model ................................................................................................................4 Overview of findings .........................................................................................................4 Identifying Disadvantage .................................................................................................4 Using SEIFA to identify disadvantaged regions within Victoria ..............................6 Location, Population and Volunteering ........................................................................7 Location and Access to Travel/ Public Transport and other services ....................7 Women and crime ..............................................................................................................9 WAM participant profile ..................................................................................................10 Crime rates in selected regions of Victoria ................................................................10 Family Violence ................................................................................................................12 Indigenous Women .........................................................................................................14 Cultural and Linguistic Diversity ..................................................................................14 Legal and Community Service Organisations by Local Government Area .........15 Colocation with existing services ................................................................................15 Therapeutic Jurisprudence ...........................................................................................15 Expanding WAM operations ..........................................................................................16 Recommendation .............................................................................................................17 Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas (RRMA) classification ..............................18 GREATER DANDENONG ............................................................................................................19 CENTRAL GOLDFIELDS ..............................................................................................................20 BRIMBANK................................................................................................................................21 LODDON MALLEE......................................................................................................................22 LATROBE ..................................................................................................................................23 PYRENEES.................................................................................................................................24 GREATER SHEPPARTON ............................................................................................................25 ARARAT....................................................................................................................................26 BALLARAT.................................................................................................................................27 MORNINGTON PENINSULA.......................................................................................................28 GREATER BENDIGO...................................................................................................................29 BIBLIOGRAPHY..........................................................................................................................30 2 Background The Women and Mentoring Program (WAM) is delivered by a small not for profit group currently operating from the Neighbourhood Justice Centre in Collingwood. WAM provides mentoring to vulnerable adult women charged with an offence, or at risk, in the City of Yarra. The WAM program was established by a small not for profit organization, The Wellington Collingwood Inc., who undertook research which determined the particular service gap. Modest funding to commence a pilot program in the City of Yarra was gained through the efforts of a local community reference group, a paid worker employed, the operating model developed, volunteers recruited and trained and work began. A year into the trial WAM was offered accommodation and considerable in kind support from the Neighbourhood Justice Centre (NJC) in Collingwood. This has been of considerable benefit. It has given WAM a presence within the justice system, enhanced referral pathways and supported further development of the model. WAM however is a relative newcomer in the area of social service delivery. It has been an innovative program incubated in part in the innovative environment of the NJC. In 2012 Effective Change Pty Ltd undertook an evaluation of WAM. The findings identified WAM as a unique and low cost approach to providing community based mentoring and support to women at the point of being charged: The evaluation also found that the model should be further tested in another location. The evaluation noted that the WAM program could gain greater strength if it moved to a “stronger infrastructure base, potentially through a consortium of agencies with a common interest in ‘making a difference’, and experience working with the specific target groups.” 1 The project brief This report discusses the potential location for a regional or outer urban WAM program using the recommendations in the Evaluation as a guide to testing the options. The Evaluation noted that as a crime prevention strategy, the mentoring of women in the criminal justice system was cheaper than their incarceration. Mentoring programs are an effective way of changing individual lives and building stronger communities. This report explores regional and outer urban options because of the relative lack of services in these areas as well as demonstrable need. Need is identified through a number of variables including demographic factors, the existence of disadvantage, crime rates and degree of social cohesion. It is also important that the location for the next WAM program offers potentially supportive or collaborative relationships. It is not possible to replicate the unique environment of the NJC, and in the long term it is not viable for the success of the program to be predicated on this model. However good partnerships could enable the modest resources of WAM to be used to greater impact and a predisposition to therapeutic jurisprudence would support referrals. Such factors are less easily calculated objectively but may be given some weight based on the judgment of the program coordinators after consultation with stakeholders in the shortlisted area. 1 Evaluation of the Women and Mentoring Program, Effective Change produced by Clare Keating 2012 p. 41. Recommendation It is recommended that either Latrobe or Greater Shepparton be selected as locations for the next WAM program. Community Development work in both locations would determine the choice of one of these. The crime rates in Shepparton and Latrobe indicate there is a cohort of women who have been charged with criminal offences that may benefit from a mentoring type program. The regional location suggests that volunteers may be more easily recruited than in the city. Regional locations in general lack adequate support services. Family violence occurs at a higher incidence in regional areas than in urban environment. Mentoring model Mentoring is about transformation. Casual mentoring exists in society in a number of different contexts from the workplace to the home, between managers and recent graduates, to mothers with newborn babies and more experienced parents. However as a crime prevention strategy there has been little evaluation of its effectiveness. Most of the research concerns youth mentoring programs. The general observation, as stated in the Evaluation, is that mentoring can reduce re-offending. Mentoring is also a type of outreach service because it happens away from an office; the WAM program complements legal services because it supports women during their interactions with the court. WAM links women with volunteer adult women who act as a positive resource, without judgment, helping them to get their lives back on track. Support extends beyond the hearing date and also helps justice professionals in their dealings with hard to reach women clients. Overview of findings The evidence of need for the new location for the WAM program is based primarily on the existence of justice services and the level of socio economic disadvantage and criminality. Other factors such as community service organisations, availability of potential volunteers and access to transport networks are also important. Higher levels of disadvantage are located in regional and rural Victoria as well as in outer urban Melbourne. In choosing between regional or outer urban locations, greater weight