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Box 7.4.2(continued)• Police and Youth Groups, which have been established in Ballarat, Horsham andHalls Gap as a means of:– providing a safe place for interaction between local Koori youth and police– fostering bonds between local Koori leaders and local Koori youth– providing more opportunities for Koori youth to feel like valued members of theircommunity. These youth groups run a range of activities, such as bowling,swimming, movies and football, which have been well attended by local Kooriyouth.• The Youth Contact Minimisation Project, which was established in Mildura as ameans of:– encouraging and supporting Koori youth, both personally and financially, toparticipate in formal organised sport throughout the year– encouraging and supporting local Elders and parents to be involved in sports asmentors, coaches, umpires, committee members and support workers– assisting Koori youth to develop physical skills, increase self esteem and improveteam-building and leadership skills, while also providing a mechanism wherebyKoori youth can become accountable and responsible for improving theirlong-term employment or sporting potential. To date, the project has attracted upto 250 Koori youth, who have competed successfully in the local district soccercompetition. The group are currently working in partnership with other recreationand community groups to establish non-soccer activities over the summer (nonplaying)season, including a youth group/drop in centre.There is no national data set on the extent of Indigenous juvenile diversions. Thedata in this section are from NSW, Victoria, Queensland, WA, SA and the NT, andthe focus is on diversions at the police level. The data are not comparable, but havebeen provided to give some indication of the level of Indigenous juvenilediversions. Diversions can also be exercised at the court level. In this Report, onlyWA provides some data on referrals to juvenile justice teams by the court.Diversionary mechanisms exercised by courts may be explored further in futureReports.The availability of data on juvenile diversions by Indigenous status is increasing. Inthe 2003 report, data were only available for NSW, WA and the NT. In the2005 Report, data were also available for Victoria and SA. For the 2007 Report,data are available for Queensland, which now allows reporting for six jurisdictions.The NSW data are from police records and represent persons of interest (POIs) oralleged offenders who have come to the attention of NSW Police for a recordedcriminal incident (driving offences are excluded). Not all crimes have an associated35