MARANGUKA JUSTICE REINVESTMENT

MARANGUKA JUSTICE REINVESTMENT

ALISTAIR FERGUSON AND JENNY LOVRIC

Alistair Ferguson, Executive Director and Founder, Maranguka Justice Reinvestment in Bourke.

Jenny Lovric, Manager Community Engagement, Just Reinvest NSW

WHAT IS JUSTICE REINVESTMENT AND MARANGUKA?

Evidence shows strategic community-driven investment in localised early support, prevention and diversionary solutions can reduce crime, build local capacity and strengthen local communities. If there’s less crime, there’s less imprisonment. By addressing the underlying causes of crime, savings on criminal justice costs are available to be reinvested in strategies that strengthen communities and prevent crime.

In 2013, the Bourke community in north-west New South Wales partnered with Just Reinvest NSW to develop a ‘proof of concept’ for justice reinvestment in Australia. Maranguka – meaning ‘caring for others’ in the Ngemba language – is a model of Indigenous self-governance guided by the Bourke Tribal Council.

Formed by a coalition of organisations and individuals, Just Reinvest NSW has been exploring justice reinvestment in NSW as a data-driven, place-based and community-led approach to address the overrepresentation of Aboriginal children and young people in prison.

Maranguka Justice Reinvestment has developed a whole-of-community and life course approach to its work, which is expressed in the community strategy for change Growing our Kids up Safe, Smart & Strong (Safe, Smart & Strong). The work is an ecosystem of collaboration, with the Bourke Tribal Council at the centre, authorising the onthe-ground work designed by the community. According to Alistair Ferguson, Founder and Executive Director of Maranguka Justice Reinvestment in Bourke, Maranguka’s success to date has been a result of the Bourke Tribal Council applying and asserting its cultural authority across the whole system, providing real definition and substance to concepts and government-led initiatives including Closing the Gap and NSW Aboriginal Affairs’ Local Decision-Making.

MULTI-PRONGED AND COLLABORATIVE RESPONSE TO DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE

For many years the Bourke community struggled with the perception that the town was dominated by justice and social issues. Bureaucratic data showed significantly high rates in domestic and family violence. In 2013, domestic assault was 14 times the NSW average and long-term unemployment was high.

Bourke wanted to re-introduce a different way of doing business. According to Alistair “The concept of Maranguka is 65,000 years old and it still holds the same meaning today within a contemporary context. This is a genuine partnership with everyone and we value them in the process.”

Understanding that sustained change to complex issues, including domestic and family violence, cannot be changed by a single organisation or program acting alone, there is a commitment to collaboration between all parts of the system including community, services, policy-makers and families. Maranguka in Bourke has adopted a collective impact approach to its work in Bourke, including the domestic and family violence work. (1) Change is also dependent on leadership to ensure that commitment and collaboration is maintained.

A critical feature of the work through Maranguka Justice Reinvestment in Bourke is that the change has been driven by the Aboriginal community in partnership with local communitybased groups and agencies include the Men of Bourke, Journey to Healing Women’s Group, the Bourke Police, Birrang, Thiyama-li Family Violence Prevention Legal Service, Catholic Care and Mission Australia.

These groups collaborate, develop and participate in programs that enable more community trust and improve the strengths of families.

Adopting a collaborative approach, initiatives have developed that support both victims and perpetrators in family violence. For example, under the Gawimarra Burrany Ngurung (Picking up the pieces) initiative, a five member team, including a mental health nurse, based at the Maranguka Hub, works with the whole family unit including the children, mother and father. In another initiative, Operation Solidarity, police accompanied by a community member or service provider visit homes where there have been domestic violence charges to support people to reduce reoffending.

The data tells a compelling story of positive change for the reduction of domestic and family violence in Bourke. Between 2015 and 2017, significant drops have been recorded for incidents of violence and related crimes including:

• 18% reduction in the number of major offences • 39% reduction in the number of domestic violence related assaults • 34% reduction in the number of non-domestic violence related assaults.

• 43% reduction in domestic related assault by young people up to 25 years.

There was also a 15% reduction in the rate of domestic violence re-offending among domestic violence offenders aged between 18 and 25 from 2014 and 2016. (2)

The Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project Impact Assessment undertaken by KMPG in 2018 found that the savings over a one-year period was approximately AUD$3.1 million, of which AUD$1.9 million savings where made in the justice system and a further AUD$1.2 million savings were made in the service system. KMPG found that the economic impact was five times greater than its operational costs. Further, If Bourke can sustain just half of these results, it would achieve an additional gross impact of $7 million over the next five years. (3)

To sustain the successes from working differently, and to continue to support collaboration between the community, police and services in Bourke, the community recognised that they needed to develop a set of collective principles that would support them to further unify and coordinate their actions.

With the assistance of The Australian Centre of Social Innovation (TACSI), Collaboration Principles and practices have been established. From a series of workshops in late 2018 attended by community, service providers and police, six core principles were co-created by community that spoke to their vision:

1. We value community ownership and control

2. We cooperate and collaborate – we are in this together to improve outcomes for everyone

3. We are proactive and strategic in how we prevent, act and respond

4. We speak up and speak out and act to prevent violence in Bourke

5. We share data and evidence to build shared accountability and transparency

6. We support everyone involved and work towards whole family responses to stop violence this generation.

A ‘Collaboration Agreement’ sets out these principles and operationalises and formalises the collaborative partnerships, embedding practices for better domestic and family violence outcomes in Bourke. Central to the Collaboration Agreement is the notion of inter-agency information sharing, working together to deliver client-focused outcomes which are flexible, culturally appropriate and enduring.

The successes in domestic and family violence in Bourke are one of many domains where Maranguka Justice Reinvestment’s vision and approach through the community’s strategy Safe, Smart & Strong illustrates how local know-how can lead change.

RELENTLESS COLLABORATION

Maranguka Justice Reinvestment in Bourke is a social movement for change centred around community empowerment and place-based action.

While the statistics are promising, and the intent to continue the collaboration to maintain change domestic and family is and always will be a complex issue. What is clear is that interconnecting factors can drive a reduction in domestic violence. Maranguka has led and continues to lead the collaboration of services in Bourke to create better outcomes and well-being of all families and children in Bourke. This way of working provides insights and pathways for other communities to lead their solutions.

1. The recent video in this link explains how collective impact works: https://youtu.be/BDY-Mdjg6rw

2. Number of recorded incidents for Jan-Dec 2015 as compared to Jan-Dec 2017. NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Reference sr18-16096.

3. KPMG Maranguka Justice Reinvestment Project Impact Assessment (2016) Impact Assessment Report, pg.42-45. Available from: http:// www.justreinvest.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Maranguka-Justice-Reinvestment-Project-KPMG-Impact-Assessment-FINALREPORT.pdf