Gold Coast charity Everything Suarve is struggling to stay afloat, with government departments referring kids but not paying a cent
It's keeping 'kindergarten crooks' out of jail and into jobs, but this Coast charity is struggling financially because government departments that refer kids to it won't cough up any money. LEARN MORE >>>
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A GRASSROOTS non-profit keeping Gold Coast’s “kindergarten crooks” away from gangs, out of the court system and getting them employment is struggling financially.
Everything Suarve’s 10-week Big Brother Program is so successful in transforming young offenders, the Queensland Police Service refers at-risk teenagers to it and offers financial support.
But despite the fact 90 per cent of graduates get off the streets, stop offending and find a job, no other state government department has given a cent to fund the Big Brother Program.
“Sometimes it feels like we’re a babysitting service, that we’re helping every government department but not being paid for it,” said Everything Suarve directors Joseph Tepuni-Fromont and Daniel Grace.
Mr Tepuni-Fromont said most offenders referred by the police, youth justice and the court system were “all on their last chance before potential incarceration”.
“To date we’ve conducted two programs, predominantly funded by myself and my partner, and we have received some funding from Queensland Police because they see value in what we do.
“And while we continue to exhaust every avenue, we have not been successful.
“We certainly haven’t sat back waiting for handouts from government departments, in fact we’ve introduced a corporate involvement package that allows successful business owners to mentor our students and possibly provide employment at the end of the program.”
Mr Tepuni-Fromont said Bunnings Warehouse provided materials for practical work and the Gold Coast City Council promotes the course and gave the organisation a grant to ensure the program continued.
“Our main frustrations is a large amount of local government departments, including local state high schools who refer young people to our program and love what we offer but do not have the ability to pay a referral fee,” he said.
“We are essentially changing these young people's lives and giving them a chance to feel what it is like to be a valued member of society and to achieve success in completing a qualification. This in turn, helps the community as a whole.
“E Suarve also helps government departments and addresses The Four Pillars stated in the Bob Atkinson Report on Youth Justice.”
He said the program offered early intervention, kept youths out of court and custody and helped to stop reoffending.
“By educating disengaged youth and helping them to find employment effectively we’re assisting all government services that are providing Centrelink services, emergency housing, court systems, police services and detention centres.
“We don’t want a handout, we want a hand up to actually take some action rather than just promising a whole lot of reactive measures to youth crime that may or may not work,” he said.
Mr Tepuni-Fromont said at $4950 the cost was prohibitive for families with children who need to take the program because most are from disadvantaged communities.
“Ultimately, it takes a community to build a stronger society and every child, irrespective of their backgrounds or family situations, is entitled to education and employment opportunities,” he said.
“We provide a valuable and essential alternative learning program essentially for youth that are considered “too hard”.
“But in our experience, all these disengaged youth need is to be given a chance, shown love and support and encouraged to believe in themselves.”
In a referral letter from the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training, the south east region regional director Brett Haagsma said E Suarve’s program enabled “disenfranchised youth to break down barriers to re-engage with education and training, leading to employment”.
“It also encourages the students to gain a sense of community belonging through the construction of cubby houses for women’s shelters and refurbishment of shipping containers for emergency housing.”
Another letter of recommendation, from a Youth Advocacy Centre case worker, that aims to help offenders maintain accommodation and meet their bail conditions, said the Big Brother Program helped his client get a job and maintain it.
“What makes this program unique is the focus on mental health and wellbeing during the young people’s time participating in the education component of the program,” said Vacen Taylor.
Bonney MP Sam O’Conner said while there was “no silver bullet” to fix the city’s youth crime problem, he saw the merit in programs that worked to address the cause of it and helped teenagers find a practical way out of it.
“There’s a whole raft of measures that we need to undertake in combination with ensuring there are consequences for actions,” he said.
“It’s what the community is crying out for, this problem must be addressed.”
FROM THEFT AND DRUG RAIDS TO THE ARMY
TARYN’s teenage son was stealing, jumping cars and raiding pharmacies for drugs until she met the Everything Suarve team at Southport Court this year.
“We have had so many troubles with our son for the last three-to-four years and at first we just thought ‘oh yeah this course sounds good, but it was just going to be another one of those courses the courts make them do’.
“Wrong. I was so wrong. The team at E Suarve have gone above and beyond for my son and our family. They have been there for support 24 hours a day.
“They have come to our house on weekends and nights when we have had a problem or my son was feeling suicidal and needed someone to talk to.”
When Taryn previously sought help from government departments, usually at night or on the weekends, she said “the phones are off, they don’t answer”.
Since taking part in E Suarve’s Big Brother pilot program, her son had returned to the family home, a place he was banished from after he did something to her family she said was “so bad that we just couldn’t trust him and have him living at home”.
“So the team helped him find accommodation and helped him transition to living there while we sorted things out,” Taryn said.
“He has now been back at home for almost three months and is doing so much.”Taryn said her son now had a job and that thanks to the “help and guidance of the team” he was applying to join the army.
“I honestly don’t see how we could have got through the last six months without E Suarve,” she said.
THE BIG BROTHER PROGRAM
EVERYTHING Suarve’s Big Brother Program is a 10-week focus on mental wellbeing, life skills, self-empowerment, education and employment.
After graduation, 90 per cent are employed.It includes 160 hours of mental wellbeing program plus:
* 80 hours of Certificate 1 and/or Certificate 2 Foundation Skills Training;
* 120 hours practical training, 24/7 support service;* Family counselling;
* Participant support psychologist on hand at request;
* Suicide prevent exercises;
* Accommodation support;
* Police gang prevention presentation;
* Community service hours solution;
* Support for court attendances by staff – and letters on request for court appearances;
* Driving licences and/or driving hours;
* Substance use awareness;
* Budgeting education;
* Resume/interview help;* Career pathways
COST: One-off payment of $4950 or $95 per day.
OR: Holding a youth in detention for 10 weeks, where they aren’t offered job pathways or intensive counselling, means the likelihood of them having a job after 10 weeks is nil.
COST: $105,000 or $1500 a day.*
*Source: Report on Youth Justice, Bob Atkinson AO, APM, The Four Pillars: A Snapshot, June 2018.
Tough love call to end Coast's teen crim crisis
February 4, 2021
KICKING teenage crims to the kerb won’t solve the continual wave of break-ins and car thefts smashing Gold Coast suburbs, warns outreach worker Joe Te Puni-Fromont.
“Sitting back and calling them little s--ts isn’t going to change anything, we have to look at why they’re jumping cars and breaking into pharmacies to steal drugs,” he said.
The Bulletin has relentlessly highlighted the need for the state government to clamp down on the city’s kindergarten crooks who are stabbing kids in the streets of Surfers Paradise, smashing their way into homes and causing carnage on the roads.
Last month, a 17-year-old allegedly stole a car and crashed into Brisbane couple Kate Leadbetter and Matty Field, killing them and their unborn child.
On Wednesday, three teenagers were arrested in Pimpama after a two-hour police chase in the northern Gold Coast involving the POLAIR helicopter and dozens of officers. It is alleged the teenagers were driving a car stolen in Mermaid Beach.
Anger in local communities across the Gold Coast is at fever pitch, with residents considering taking matters into their own hands by setting up vigilante groups.
Mr Te Puni-Fromont is a director at Everything Suarve, an Ormeau charity delivering an ambitious program using “tough love” and a “no bull---t approach” to reforming kids hooked on drugs and trapped in a cycle of poverty and crime.
Last year the charity helped 10 teenagers, on the brink of being thrown in jail, to complete a hands-on, 80-hour training program. Nine of them are now locally employed and working full time, with 25 more troubled teens enrolled to complete the entry-level construction course this month.
Mr Te Puni-Fromont said 80 per cent of the kids he worked with came from the court system for stealing cars, breaking into homes and doing hit and runs on the pharmacies to get prescription drugs
“It’s the prescription drugs that’s running through the youth today that’s killing them and they’re so easy to get,” he said.
“They know what they have to say to doctors and can easily ring up telehealth and say they’re depressed or suicidal and can pick up a script at a pharmacy without parental signatures.
“These kids are smart and are taking the system for a run and getting a slap on the wrist and getting away with it.”
However, at Everything Suarve, Mr Te Puni-Fromont said disengaged youths were willingly handing over their stash of pills to be kept in a locked safe.
Pills tucked away in the safe include Xanax, used to treat anxiety, Olanzapine Sandoz, a drug used to treat schizophrenia, and Fluvoxamine, an antidepressant often used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder.
“These kids are just doing it to be cool, to impress their mates, but when it comes down to it most don’t want to end up in jail or have a life of crime,” he said.
“All of us here have been where the boys have been, either growing up disadvantaged, being involved in crime or dealing with drug or alcohol abuse struggles. That’s why we’re so successful in being able to reach them.
“Unlike other organisations, we don’t have red tape in regards to how we speak to these kids, so we level with them – there’s no judgment,” he said.
FULL DIGITAL ACCESS: JUST $1 FOR FIRST 28 DAYS
“We get in their face and speak to them in a very real way, we don’t have to sugar-coat it and definitely don’t p--s in their pocket.
“If they break into a chemist to get drugs, we explain how this affects people such as their sick grandmothers, or those who break into homes, we talk frankly about how they’d feel if someone smashed their way into their loved one’s house.
“No one is forcing us to help these kids, but there’s a real need for it.
“Usually when parents ring us up we’re their last hope at stopping their kids from ending up in jail.”
Mr Te Puni-Fromont said he hoped to reach kids before they started down the path of crime.
“Slapping these kids on the wrist doesn’t work, and not to discredit what the youth department is doing, but we’re hoping the state government will look to fund charities such as us that are actually turning these kids around.”
‘Is that the lord Bernard Tomic?’ Life on lower ranks of pro tennis
Bernard Tomic and Jason Kubler - who’ve played on the world’s biggest stages - walk out onto court six in front of just as many spectators to do battle. Welcome to the lower ranks of pro tennis.
Think twice before you block this number
Police are urging Gold Coast residents to think twice before they block this number. Find out why.