YAPA media release: 17 March 2011
MEDIA RELEASE
The peak organisation representing young people and the services that support them across NSW has expressed its frustration at the Keneally Government for allowing over $9 million in grants for vulnerable young people to fall into administrative limbo.
The Better Futures program was introduced in response to the 1999 NSW Drug Summit, and delivers grants to community groups to build resilience in vulnerable and at risk children and young people aged 9-18 years, who might otherwise disengage from community, school, family and friends.
The Youth Action and Policy Association NSW (YAPA), which represents services who would have delivered these programs as well as the young people whom they would have helped, understands that hundreds of project proposals developed by service providers over the Christmas period were submitted, and the Better Futures grant administration team in Communities NSW were working tirelessly to meet deadlines.
However YAPA Chief Executive, Reynato Reodica, said today that concerns from the youth sector began after the official announcement date on February 25 came and went with no announcement. After all that work, it appears that the decision on the grants fell into a black hole between Communities NSW and the desk of the Minister for Youth, Peter Primrose.
After several requests for updates, YAPA was informed last Tuesday via email from Minister Primrose, that the Ministerʼs staff “were unable to finalise the funding arrangements prior to the caretaker period commencing. Accordingly, decisions and subsequent announcements can now only be made once the caretaker conventions no longer apply.”
Mr Reodica stated this response was inadequate, considering there was ample time between the official deadline and caretaker commencing, when the Minister should have made his final decision.
“During that period, Minister Primrose was out making funding announcements for smaller projects under this program, when we wish that he had prioritised work to ensure that the funding of over $9 million could have been allocated when it was promised” Mr Reodica said. “Many of these programs are already being run by services who now wonʼt be able to tell their vulnerable clients if their support will run out in just a few months.”
“YAPA – on behalf of the youth services and vulnerable young people it represents – calls on the elected government to give vulnerable young people the priority they deserve and commit to funding these programs without further delay”
Media contact
Reynato Reodica
YAPA Chief Executive – 02 9281 5522 ext 1, 0416 929 252