Community Crime Prevention Fund

PHAIWA has been funded through the Community Crime Prevention Fund to address several Crime Prevention issues in the small remote Indigenous community of Bidyadanga. The aim of this project is to engage Indigenous youth through a community consultation in an effort to initiate and implement a relevant anti-alcohol and drug project in the community. The outcomes will be the facilitation of a range of diversionary activities; however the young people will decide which activities are most relevant to their community. This project will use the ideas from the young people to develop appropriate diversionary programs and some educational activities that will address prevention and early intervention for young people in regards to alcohol and drug use and antisocial behaviour. Through these interventions, young people will be exposed to relevant and peer led education and community engagement activities (sport, movie nights, camps, art, etc) which will heighten awareness around the dangers of alcohol and drug use and related crime and violent behaviour and provide alternate activities to roaming the streets and consuming drugs, solvents and alcohol.

Crime prevention is already supported in Bidyadanga through community policing and there is a Youth Engagement Officer in the community. This project would build on existing work and priorities supported by the local police, with an aim to reduce alcohol and drug related harms and anti-social behaviour.