A Newcastle program supporting young people at risk of engaging in violence has received a substantial cash injection to help continue its work in the community.
The University of Newcastle's early intervention program, Name.Narrate.Navigate.360, has secured a $2.1 million federal government Supporting Adolescent Boys grant.
The funding will allow the program to help young men and boys in the region heal and recover through services that are culturally safe and responsive, trauma and healing-informed, strengths-based and tailored to their individual needs and circumstances.
University of Newcastle Associate Professor Tamara Blakemore who leads the program said it came about from an "unmet need".
"Practitioners were telling us they saw violence increasing in the community," Dr Blakemore said.
"They also found that there was a lack of trauma-informed and culturally safe programs to respond but more so that there was a lack of training available for practitioners to make them feel confident working in that space."
The program recognises that violence is often tied to adverse childhood experiences, Dr Blakemore said.
"We know adverse childhood experiences have a ripple effect throughout our lives, one aspect of which can be the use of violence," she said.
"We need to work early and we need to work often and in as many aspects of our community as possible.
"This isn't the realm of DV services alone. It isn't the realm of specialist services alone.
"There is a community responsibility to change the conversation and it's only in changing the conversation that young men and women get the opportunity to change their ideas about what's possible in their lives.
"What's really exciting is when we see people change their ideas. We start to see hope and people start to make different choices."
Name.Narrate.Navigate.360 provides professional education, mentoring and training to workers who support young people.
Allambi Care is a facilitator of the program and director of family and early interventions services Kelly-Lee Goodchild said she had seen some great results in young participants.
"It really gives them that sense of empowerment and self-determination to start working through some of the past trauma that they've experienced and provide opportunities for them to learn and develop strong relationships," she said.
"It helps them understand what a healthy relationship is and to be able to have that confidence to overcome challenges."
Name.Narrate.Navigate.360 was created six years ago with funding from the Department of Social Services. Other organisations such as Westpac have since contributed money to help scale up the program, but Dr Blakemore said they were reaching the end of their funding.
"This $2.1 million is hugely exciting and just such a vote of confidence in the program and in the good work that happens in regional areas," she said.
The funding is part of a $23 million federal government package for 12 early intervention services aimed at stopping gender-based violence.
Newcastle MP Sharon Claydon said despite a lot of work to combat domestic and family violence, "the trajectory is all going in the wrong direction".
"One of the lessons that we're learning is that the earlier the intervention the better," she said.
"We have an obligation to support the crisis services and we will continue to do so, but we know if we really are going to be able to make inroads into the levels of gender-based violence in our community, then we've got to stop at where it starts.
"That is going to be working with youngest of people and doing all we can to work on prevention
"There wasn't always a focus on early intervention and working with young men and boys, and this funding is validation and recognition of what is possible."
