Ngala on the goals for its Carnarvon Target 120 program, to be rolled out after almost year-long delay

The team rolling out the Target 120 program in Carnarvon is already working with three families, which could rise to 10 in coming months.

Last week, the State Government appointed Ngala to run the program in the Gascoyne town, which has been in the grip of a youth crime crisis.

It had been almost a year since the Government announced Carnarvon as one of Target 120’s expansion sites in its State Budget last year.

According to the T120 evaluation progress report, evidence from existing sites indicated individualised intervention at an early stage decreases long-term involvement with the justice system.

The program targets at-risk young people and their parents to offer support in the hopes of decreasing criminal activity among children and teenagers between 10 and 14.

Ngala operations manager Nancy Kirby said: “There has been a 50 per cent decrease in criminal behaviour across the board.”

She said Ngala found out two weeks ago that their tender had been accepted and have since hit the ground running.

The program focuses on building relationships with families and establishing trust initially, before moving on to goal setting.

One new recruit for the program was an existing social worker in the community, benefitting the roll-out as they had established relationships with young people in Carnarvon.

Teaming up with support workers, parents will articulate their goals for the family while children describe what they would like to achieve through the program. This ranges from employment, housing, education and financial support.

“We are already working with three families, and ideally will have 10 families in the coming months,” Ms Kirby said.

When asked about the core focuses of the initiative, Ms Kirby said: “Each family has their own goals, and we do whatever we can to support them in reaching these, whether it means directing them to external support networks or using internal resources”.

Target 120 across WA has received funding of $20.5 million over four years, from 2018-19 to 2021-22, with additional funding announced in May 2022. An extra $11.1m was allocated in the 2022-23 Budget last year to expand to nine new locations, including Carnarvon. Target 120 now runs in 20 locations in WA.

Ms Kirby said measuring the success of the program was a hands-on experience, discussing with each family whether or not they were satisfied with the outcome.

The Carnarvon program will be active until the end of June 2024.