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Meenah Mienne Shared Responsibility Agreement (SRA) | | Date: | 8 August 2008 | | | Sub Category: | Shared Responsibility Agreement (SRA) | | Place: | Launceston | | State/Country: | Tasmania, Australia | | The Meenah Mienne Shared Responsibility Agreement relates to the Meenah Mienne Arts Mentoring Program, which is based in Launceston in the State of Tasmania. | | Subject Matter: | | Employment and Training | Health and Community Services | Leadership | Youth | | URL: | http://www.meenahmienne.org.au/ | | | Summary Information: | | | The Meenah Mienne Shared Responsibility Agreement (SRA) was signed on 8 August 2008 by the following parties:
- the Tasmanian Aboriginal Child Care Association Inc (representing the Aboriginal community of Northern Tasmania);
- the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (representing the Commonwealth of Australia); and
- the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services Youth Justice Division (representing the State of Tasmania).
The purpose of this SRA is to establish an Arts Mentoring Program intended to 'support young people at risk to engage positively in contributing to family strength and cohesion' (Meenah Mienne Website). | | Detailed Information: | | | This Shared Responsibility Agreement sets out a framework for the establishment of the Meenah Mienne Arts Mentoring Program. This program seeks to provide adult arts mentors to young Aboriginal people at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre and at high schools in the Launceston area. It is governed by an Aboriginal Advisory Committee.
The Meenah Mienne Program seeks referrals from or for young people who are either already in contact with the juvenile justice system, or at risk of being so. It is hoped that by providing young people with leadership role models, cultural connections, skills development, opportunities for healing and self-expression and pathways to training and employment, the program will prevent them from either engaging or re-engaging with crime and juvenile detention. It is also hoped that the program will enhance support networks within the Aboriginal community of Northern Tasmania, and raise the profile of Aboriginal art and culture among young people. These aspirations are reflected in the name of the program, 'meenah mienne', which means 'my dream'.
The Meenah Mienne Program was initiated by the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services (Division of Children and Families), in conjunction with elders and artists from the Aboriginal community of Northern Tasmania. The Program was motivated by figures indicating the over-representation of Aboriginal people in Tasmania's youth justice system.
| | | Outcomes: | | | According to the Meenah Mienne Website, the program has given rise to a number of positive outcomes since becoming operational in 2008:
- Over 20 young Aboriginal people, some of whom are at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre, and some of whom were identified as 'high risk students' at local high schools, have voluntarily become involved in the Program.
- A theatre arts program has been established at the Ashley Youth Detention Centre and the Brooks High School as part of the National School Drug Education Strategy.
- A number of young Aboriginal participants have pursued further employment and educational opportunities through the Program.
- Since 2010, the Program has been supported by the Tasmanian Community Fund, which will provide funding for the use of art and business projects as a means of raising literacy levels in the local Aboriginal community.
For more detail on the outcomes of this Program, see the Meenah Mienne Website and the Meenah Mienne Submission to the House of Representatives, for which links have been provided below. | |
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