Overview
The Central Australian Youth Link Up Service (CAYLUS) is a federally funded program designed to address substance abuse in remote Indigenous communities and Alice Springs through supporting community initiatives to reduce substance abuse and improve quality of life. CAYLUS started to operate in late 2002 and continues to be core funded by the Federal Department of Health and Ageing though we operate on a combination of funds from around 10 federal and NT Govt and philanthropic sources. We have a Reference Group predominantly made up of stakeholders from the remote communities and a select set of service providers who operate in these regions. Since the commencement of our work we have seen a 95% reduction in petrol sniffing in the region : youth in our region are much safer and live much better lives due to our work.
As a part of the Opal Alliance in partnership with Ngaanyatjara Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council and The GPT Group, a multinational company, we were awarded a prize by the National Council on Drugs for our work in advocating for the regional roll-out of Opal fuel in Central Australia, a measure that has been integral in reducing the prevalence of petrol sniffing in our region.
We have been operating during the time of the Northern TER and have some observations to make under the following headings :
- Lack of Consultation
- The Top Down effect
- Targeted income management
- Long term employment strategies
- Health
- Policing issues
- Legislating for Opal
- Legislating for other inhalants
- Rehabilitation programs
- Alcohol
- Education
- Youth programs as educational and child safety strategies
- The lost Opportunity
- Conclusion
In essence, we have been working since 2002 in partnership with remote communities and other stakeholders to develop programs that improve the quality of life of young people in the region (central Australia as far North as Tennant Creek) and we have succeeded. We developed costings (attachment 2) to provide youth support programs in all these communities which can achieve the most significant outcomes desired by the NTER. The solution to the disadvantage suffered by remote Indigenous youth is available to any government that is prepared to spend the required money on infrastructure and ongoing youth development programs. How the current government rolls out the next phase of the NTER will be a test of their commitment to actually solving these problems once and for all.