Throughcare Program

NAAJA’s Throughcare Program started in 2009 and is proudly funded by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.We aim to reduce repeat offending by addressing the ‘throughcare’ needs of adult prisoners and youth detainees. Throughcare is defined as the coordinated provision of support to a person, beginning when they first go into prison and continuing until they are living a safe, fulfilling and trouble free life back out in the community. The Program has Intensive Case Managers based in Darwin and Alice Springs who help clients get ready to leave prison or youth detention and support them once they are released.

Intensive Case Management

Our Intensive Case Managers help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in prison and youth detention get ready to be released, and support them once they are back in the community. Two of our Darwin Intensive Case Managers work specifically with people who are in prison because of domestic and family violence.

We provide strength-based case management and referral services to help people access the support and services they need to help them stay out of prison. For example, we can help them with:

  • Ongoing rehabilitation,
  • Accommodation,
  • Employment,
  • Education and training,
  • Health,
  • Life and problem solving skills, and
  • Reconnection to family and community.


Eligibility

  • Our Program is voluntary and we work with people who are ready to make positive changes in their lives. We also work with people who have high needs, including:
  • We start working with people in prison and in youth detention six months before their release dates and can keep working with them for as long as we need to once they are back in the community.
  • Homelessness or marginal accommodation,
  • No income, disengagement from Centrelink, or unstable income,
  • Literacy and numeracy issues, and/or English as second, third or fourth language,
  • Problematic family relationships. Involvement with welfare agencies, history of family violence, cultural/payback issues,
  • Lack of community supports,
  • Substance misuse issues, and
  • Health, including mental health issues, and/or physical disabilities.We accept referrals from people in prison and youth detention themselves, as well as from members of their family. We also accept referrals from the wider NAAJA Team, the Darwin and Alice Springs Correctional Centres, the Don Dale and Alice Springs Youth Detention Centre, NT Community Corrections, lawyers and other service providers. The NAAJA Throughcare Program was also featured on the ABC’s 7.30 Report in July 2012.The success of NAAJA’s Throughcare Program was recognised when it won an Australian Crime Violence and Prevention Award from the Australian Institute of Criminology in 2012.

Kunga Stopping Violence Program

  • The Kunga Program is based in Alice Springs and works with women who have been incarcerated in Alice Springs Correctional Centre for a violent offence. The program runs a 4 week course in prison for the Kunga participants to build trust, gain insight, skills, and confidence. The women are then visited in prison each week by case managers and are assisted to make plans for when they are released. It is a voluntary program and seeks to help women break cycles of violence in their lives and to keep them out of prison. The Kunga program continues working with women for 12 months after they are released through intensive and responsive support, home visits, referrals, mentoring, a drop in space, and social programs.
  • We work in the greater Darwin and Alice Springs region but also travel to selected remote regions.You can listen here to a story from the ABC ‘Law Report’ program in 2011 about the work we do, and the challenges our clients face.
  • Intensive Case Managers work with 15 people at any one time. Capping case loads at this number means we are able to provide each client with high quality case management support to help them achieve their goals.