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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-06-27 Daily Xml
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ABORIGINAL PRISONERS AND OFFENDERS SUPPORT SERVICES

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (15:34): I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Aboriginal Prisoners and Offenders Support Services at its premises in Cypress Street, Adelaide. I met with the CEO, Frank Lampard OAM, and some of his senior management team—Peter Smith, General Manager Services, and Diane Haddington, from the Exceptional Needs Services team—who took me through some of the programs that APOSS run. APOSS is a pre-eminent Aboriginal organisation, having been formed some 17 years ago as result of the 1987 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.

APOSS has two divisions: Exceptional Needs Services, funded through Disability SA; and the general service funded by the commonwealth Attorney-General's Department. APOSS's exceptional needs program is operated in Adelaide and Port Augusta. In both locations, APOSS locates people who are homeless and who typically have not been diagnosed with a mental or physical disability. Many do have such conditions but are not diagnosed for a multitude of reasons. APOSS's exceptional needs program is very resource intensive, dealing with some of the most difficult and high-risk cases in the state. This program is therefore very challenging to operate.

APOSS's general service provides programs accommodation, housing and general client requests, and focuses on Prisoner Through Care support for those principally in their last six months of imprisonment and the first six months after their release. APOSS at any one time manages over 300 current Prisoner Through Care clients and intensively case manages those who are assessed as 'willing and ready to change'. This group varies, but it usually involves around 60 individuals, both men and women, and includes several youth.

The majority of the latter group of 60 has a high success rate, particularly when they are able to secure employment. However, many have never had a job and are often transgenerational unemployed with a very low skill base. APOSS runs these individuals through basic life skills programs, and earlier this year APOSS began one of their most successful programs, the Parappendi (Men's Group) Cultural Program. This program involves some 25 men cutting and moulding didgeridoos and then learning to play them. It is hoped that this year's program will culminate in a live performance in NAIDOC Week in early July.

Another program that APOSS also works with is Major Sumner's Camp Coorong. Camp Coorong provides an ideal location for rehabilitation, re-socialisation and reconnection. Both APOSS and Camp Coorong are developing a program that in the first instance will provide a venue free of the pressures of normal life while at the same time instilling a strong work ethic through daily participation in cultural activities. This program will be partly run from Camp Coorong and APOSS's existing facility at Pennington. The aim is that, once an individual settles into a new way of thinking—that is, they make a real and positive change—they will be ready for pre-vocational and other initiatives.

APOSS is assertively engaging with Aboriginal prisoners and offenders and their families when, where and in whatever way they either seek help or come to the attention of the system because of their vulnerability. The approach uses every possible pathway to reconnect people into a positive and meaningful future. This model may be recognised by some as 'tough love'. This is a particularly effective approach in the Aboriginal cultural context. This approach takes time, patience and persistence, hopefully with the end result being that individuals will make safer life choices for themselves and their families. I again thank Frank Lampard and the APOSS team for the wonderful and tireless work they undertake on behalf of Aboriginal people in this state.

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