Boot Camps: What's been learned and where it's going / A.J. Hendry
The Government's desire to scale the project risks diluting its effectiveness by dramatically altering the pilot, to be successful the Government is going to need to begin backing the evidence...
The Government has announced the end of the first phase of their Boot Camp (aka the Military Style Academy) with young people shifting this week, from their residences back into their communities. The end of this initial phase of the pilot is significant and provides an opportunity for us to reflect on where the Government’s experiment is currently, and where it will need to go if it is to be successful in serving our young people.
First, it’s not a Boot Camp. The Government campaigned on delivering a punitive, tough as nails, boot camp to "get tough on crime and sort out those kids". This is not what has been developed. Thanks to the hard work of some good people within Oranga Tamariki, the military component has been significantly toned down, with deference being given to evidence based therapeutic, holistic support and recovery. This is good, and important to recognize.
For the most part, it looks like Oranga Tamariki has done what they can do within the limits set by the Government to complete a long overdue redesign of our youth residential programs. The Military-Style component of this project has been significantly toned down, whereas the evidence backed, holistic, therapeutic support, attempts to get to the heart of the challenges facing our young people.
Second, the focus is on Transition. Oranga Tamariki have put a strong focus on supporting the whānau alongside the young person to transition once they leave the residence. This is vital, historically New Zealand has not done transitions well. The provision of an intensive mentor is critical, as is Oranga Tamariki’s intention to work both with the whānau and the young person throughout the course of the program
Some of the challenges Oranga Tamariki will likely face in ensuring a successful transition, is that the Government's directives to deliver this program within a time frame that was politically expedient will undoubtedly create operational challenges. Historically, we have not done transitions well. We lack significant resources and infrastructure within the community to ensure their success. For example, for some young people, one of the big challenges they face is access to safe and supportive housing. They would benefit from a youth specific transitional housing program in their local community. We don't have enough Youth Housing projects across the country, nor do we have many designed, equipped, or funded to support young people exiting the justice system.
Alongside this, the Government has cut 20 million dollars’ worth of funding for Youth Housing services, that could have been directed to meet this need. In addition to this, the Government's funding cuts have also meant that community focused programs that serve as part of the ecosystem to support Early Intervention - and which also could have been activated to sustain a successful transition – have been significantly impacted.
Developing a strong transition program, that can effectively empower young people and their communities to thrive, will take more than the six or so months Oranga Tamariki have been given. This is an all of Government project, one which requires various ministries, from Health to Social Development, to Housing and Education, to speak with one another and collaborate effectively. It's important to note, that the challenges that Oranga Tamariki are likely to face here are of the Government's own making.
They will be challenges created through haste, and resulting from Government Ministers pushing for speed while compromising quality and effectiveness.
Third, there are no silver bullets, mentors alone cannot fix the impact of generations of inequality and poverty. It's important to recognize, that as powerful as a good quality Youth Development Worker can be in a young person's life, the challenges these young people face are much larger than anything a single mentor can address alone. The evidence shows us that young people who come into conflict with the law are likely to have experienced significant trauma, be struggling with mental ill-health, and be young people with disabilities. We are talking about young people who come from communities that are dealing with the enduring reality of poverty, housing insecurity, and generational trauma.
At some point we must recognize that unless we are committed to addressing the long standing, systemic reasons, why young people come into conflict with the law, we will never be successful in preventing harm from occurring in our communities.
Fourth, scaling up will be difficult. One of the core components of this project so far has been that Oranga Tamariki managed to maintain an element of choice (whānau and young people were able to opt into the project). It was also cohort based, meaning a group of ten young people started together, were able to build community, solidarity, and do the journey together. Both elements no doubt have been important for success in the pilot so far. The Government's plan's (as they currently stand) would see both components stripped away. The Government has spoken about wanting to scale up and to allow the courts to mandate participation, which alongside removing the aspect of choice, would also have significant operational implications, including most likely moving the project to a rolling intake (doing away with the cohort specific model).
These changes would so dramatically change the pilot model, making it unrecognizable. Meaning that any evidence or findings from the pilot, could not truly be utilized as evidence to back up the next phase of the Government's agenda.
Fifth, its time to shift away from Youth Justice Residences. My personal view remains that Youth Justice Residences should be closed and instead we should ground our Youth Justice System on evidence and build from there. The Military-Style component of this project is not essential to success and could easily be replaced by an iwi led, marae based model, with much greater effect.
Long-term, we should be shifting to a stronger focus on Early Intervention and community responses. And for that small group of young people that require secure respite, Oranga Tamariki could utilize the knowledge they have developed from this pilot, merging the evidence-based wrap around support with smaller, localized, whānau style, programs embedded within local communities.
If however, the Government is going to continue with the Youth Residence style model, the reality it needs to acknowledge is that it will need to resource it. This project was designed for 10 young people and had significant resources provided to it in order to ensure its success. If the Government is going to scale it and retain these initial results, they will need to commit to scaling up the budget in order to deliver the project safely and effectively. This will be an expensive project.
At some point the Government will have to ask itself, why it is not better, to simply follow the evidence, invest in our communities, and do what we already know works.
A.J. Hendry is a Youth Development Worker and rangatahi advocate, working in the Youth Housing and Homelessness space. He leads and co-founded Kick Back, a youth development organizations responding to youth homelessness and is also an advocate working collectively to end youth homelessness in Aotearoa. He is also the curator and creator of When Lambs Are Silent.