In a small cafe on one of Toowoomba's main streets, Tyrone Bland is taking coffee orders from staff working at the nearby courthouse.
The 22-year-old loves his job at Emerge Cafe.
It changed the course of his life when he was homeless and had nowhere to go.
"I've grown up all by myself, no mum and dad to point me in the right direction … I didn't know where to go," he said.
The cafe — a social enterprise helping at-risk youth in the region — has employed more than 60 young people and housed dozens in its emergency and permanent accommodation since it opened in 2019.
Mr Bland is one of them, having secured a traineeship and accommodation.
Founder Jen Shaw said demand this year was "crazy".
"On the weekend we had three young people come and stay in our emergency housing," Ms Shaw said.
"As a human I could not let these kids go and sleep in a toilet block in a park — hungry, cold, reliant on the safety of a locked door of a disabled toilet."
Violent crimes and car thefts — often at the hands of young offenders — have skyrocketed in the regional city in the past year.
Three teens were charged with the alleged murder of 75-year-old Robert Brown last month after he died from injuries following an alleged assault.
The tragedy prompted major debate and a government forum on how to address youth crime concerns.
'How do we solve this as a community?'
Ms Shaw has observed the growing anger in the community about youth crime, but said calm conversations were needed to tackle the root causes.
"We're all just running around like mad chooks trying to put a bandaid on this problem ," she said.
"No-one's able to really take a step back and go, 'Right, how do we solve this as a community?'."
She said about 40 youth organisations or services dedicated to helping young people in the Toowoomba region were "scrambling" to assist, but many had long wait lists.
"There's still only 12 funded beds [in local] crisis accommodation for young people and we've got a couple of hundred [youths] on the street."
The Queensland government is set to introduce breach of bail as an offence in a bid to crack down on repeat young offenders.
Ms Shaw welcomed the move and said some offenders did not take court orders seriously.
But she said the discussion about tougher penalties also needed to address issues such as homelessness, mental health and addiction.
"If it was going to work it would have — we're talking about kids who are offending to get to prison ... who are craving identity and belonging and basic needs," she said.
Holding hope
After Ken Cunliffe's home was invaded last year, he formed a group for victims of youth crime in Toowoomba.
It was not what he envisaged himself doing at 61, but he said it was necessary.
"It's for our children and grandchildren. We need a safe society," Mr Cunliffe said.
He said the group had advocated for hundreds of victims in the region and spoken with the state premier, the local council and police.
Two members of the group will also present to the state government's Economic Governance Committee on Thursday in relation to youth crime.
Mr Cunliffe said to prevent young people offending there needed to be compassionate prevention measures, but also tougher penalties for some offenders.
The group is also eager to see more transparency on how minors are dealt with in the justice system.
"We want to see an open justice system, especially in the youth justice system, where victims are involved in the court process and need to know who the offenders are," he said.
"They need confidence that offenders are being punished properly."
For now, the group continues to search for solutions, and change.
"We're desperately concerned … I'm also hopeful," Mr Cunliffe said.
"There would be no point in doing what we're doing if we were pessimistic."
'Discouraging' conversations
In another part of the city, Kate Venables runs several early intervention programs for youth identified as "at risk of offending".
The chief executive of Catholic Care Toowoomba is increasingly frustrated by the one-size-fits-all approach applied to young people in the youth justice system.
"They have very poor and challenging home lives … where there is regularly significant domestic violence going on," Ms Venables said.
"The reality is that not everyone sits at the same start point … you haven't got a level playing field, so you can't apply a black-and-white response to an uneven playing field."
She said there was no silver bullet to resolve the issue.
"There needs to be appropriate punishment … I'm not entirely convinced that throwing everyone in jail has got any research to back that it's successful," she said.
Start caring
Back at the Emerge Cafe, Tyrone Bland said having someone care about him had been life-changing.
He believes a more compassionate approach could have a positive impact on the city's youth crime issue.
"Start caring and then we'll see the difference in our kids because their mum, dad is not going to do it for them," he said.
"It's got to be that one person that is always going to care for them, and they'll turn around [because] they realise there's people that care."
