Home > Dail Eireann debate. Written answer 436 - Youth services funding [6326/14].

[Oireachtas] Dail Eireann debate. Written answer 436 - Youth services funding [6326/14]. (11 Feb 2014)

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436. Deputy John Deasy asked the Minister for Justice and Equality the funding programmes that are available from his Department to assist projects involved in youth diversion and rehabilitation; and to whom applications for State support should be directed in each instance.  [6326/14] 

Minister for Justice and Equality (Deputy Alan Shatter): My Department, through the Community Programmes Unit of the Irish Youth Justice Service, manages the funding and the delivery of 100 Garda Youth Diversion Projects (GYDP) nationwide and 5 local Drug Task Force (LDTFs) projects. The GYDPs, which are staffed by two youth justice workers, are managed locally by community based organisations working with a local project committee which is chaired by the local Garda District Officer. The LDTF projects, which work closely with their collocated GYDP projects, are staffed with a drugs and alcohol worker and operate a referral system from Gardai, parents and other sources and may also refer onwards to assessment and treatment centres. The project committees are required to submit detailed plans with budgetary costings annually to the Community Programmes Unit.
 
The GYDP projects are community-based, multi-agency, crime prevention initiatives which are designed to engage with and seek to divert young people from becoming involved in or further involved in anti-social and/or criminal behaviour. They operate in support of the statutory Garda Diversion Programme and aim to bring about the conditions whereby the behavioural patterns of young people towards law and order can develop and mature through positive interventions and interaction with the project. The projects are particularly targeted at 12-17 year old “at risk” youths in communities where a specific need has been identified and where there is a risk of them remaining within the justice system. The approach is supported by a risk assessment of participants designed to identify their needs and to enable a project to plan interventions that provide the best possible outcome for the participant. 

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