00:00Once a week, at the Cobham Juvenile Justice Centre, boys of Pacific Heritage get together
00:08to reconnect with their island culture.
00:10There's food to share and a ceremonial bowl of kava.
00:18The centre gives us this opportunity to learn about culture again.
00:22It's part of the Pasifika programme, first started here in 2019.
00:27Initially, we had two separate rural gang groups who were unable to mix, and it took
00:32about six to nine months for intense workshops, one-on-one work with them, for us to even
00:39consider bringing those two groups together, which was massive.
00:43And there have been more success stories since, including one boy who was almost transferred
00:48to prison, but later managed to finish school while at Cobham.
00:52He was one of the first in his family to complete his HSE, was able to gain employment, and that
00:56was all through the support through Pasifika.
00:59Professor Joji Ravulo says Pacific youth remain over-represented in the NSW justice system.
01:06But he says initiatives like the Pasifika programme are a novel way to address the issue.
01:11It's trying to understand what has led to this person doing the crime, and how do we then
01:17potentially create support to counteract that criminal behaviour in the first place?
01:23Hey Michael Phil's right there, put the camera on Michael Phil!
01:28A lot of Pasifika's work starts in the community with at-risk youth.
01:32They come and support us at our rugby games, and they buy stuff, they make us feel loved.
01:38Through this programme we do plant seeds and we can start changing mindsets to help these
01:44young people take that step to change.
01:46Pasifika has recently received government funding to begin training staff state-wide, with Queensland
01:53and Victoria Youth Justice also reaching out.
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