Providing Education and Training for At Risk ... - Victoria University

programs for individual or groups of students in such areas as conflict resolution, angermanagement and social skills. (43)Brooks et al. conclude that ‘a complex mix of programs and a plethora of school services andlocal initiatives was seen to exist….[this] makes it difficult to assess the extent that needs…arebeing met’ (44). Local initiatives are often presented as community-based, and the role oflocal government is therefore more prominent than hitherto. For example, and developing thisReview, again, by analogy, we note the emergence of ethnicity as a dimension in youth policy- and the location of many programs on local government jurisdictions:It is through local government in particular that new youth community workers, includingthose with specific ethnic attachments, become most significant. ‘Communities’ aresupposed to provide the social networks to sustain the coming generation. In this context,ethnic communities take on new meaning, assuming new roles in controlling the youngthrough such initiatives as ‘community policing’, involving ethnic and other communitiesin consultation with the police, but also placing more responsibility on communitiesand individual families to control their own young. (Guerra and White: 1995:31)In quite another context, the community is also worked hard as a source of moral authority forlearning, or, in this case, juvenile justice, for re-learning:Young women who have received a custodial sentence and are assessed as suitable, areplaced, earlier than usual, into the community through the use of the extended temporaryleave program…a Voluntary Support Group is established…this group develops a ClientService Plan… When in the community, the young women…use existing communitysupports and professional services to facilitate the establishment of a long-term network.(Alder and Baines: 1996:62)This is not an outline of a returning to study program, but it does demonstrate many of thefeatures of one: individual needs, negotiated support, clear expectations, and a ‘pathway’ tosuccess. By analogy, we can look for similar features in other community-based programs,many run by non-school agencies such as churches, local government and the like.Another example of locally based and flexibly designed programs is found in the (normallygovernment-funded) area of labour market programs, which have mainly been job-creating(such as LEAP). Research indicates…some evidence that young unemployed, including those disadvantaged in the labourmarket, are able to gain access to community-based employment developmentprojects….The staff of community-based job creation projects report that they achievesome success partly because their small-scale projects can respond to local employmentneeds, can mobilise local employment networks and can allow close monitoring ofparticipants’ progress by committed staff…Young long-term unemployed were likely…tobe further education and training [rather than employment] and such outcomes wereconsidered positive by staff and the participants themselves. (Carson and Doube 1994:iv-v)The messages, even by analogies such as these, are constant: where staff are consistentlycommitted, practical outcomes are a shared expectation, and flexibility over individuals’ needsare all prominent, programs are effective.19