2012 – current: Step-Up: A mindfulness-based group program for violent offenders: Programme development and pilot evaluation for Corrections Victoria and Youth Justice WA
The Department of Justice- Corrections Victoria commissioned Innovative Minds to develop and conduct a pilot programme of Step-Up to assess its suitability for a more widely based programme for young-adult violent offenders. Step-Up is a group program drawn from evidence-based, cognitive behavioural therapies, delivered over ten weeks. Key elements of the program have a substantial evidence base amongst juvenile and adult offender populations. Participants attend the programme for three hours per week for 10-weeks, each week split into two sessions of 1.5 hours each. The program covers standard anger management components (i.e., social skills training and self-instruction training) framed within a mindfulness and values based approach, broadly consistent with ‘third wave’ behaviour therapies such as MBSR and ACT. In Victoria, Step-Up has been implemented at a statewide community and custodial violence prevention programme with young adult offenders (18-26 years). Step-Up is currently being piloted and assessed in WA Youth Justice with younger violent offenders (16-18 years). The Correction Victoria pilot study report can be found here Step-up report.
2010 – 2011: Victorian Youth Justice Custodial Services Program Review
A mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) review of Victorian Youth Justice non-criminogenic/activity-based programs across all custodial services. This evaluation project comprised: a literature review of international evidence-based practice relative to non-offence based service provision for young people in custody; development and administration of an initial staff survey; a combination of individual and focus group interviews with key-stakeholders (clients, internal and external program providers, and youth justice staff); interim and a final reports including recommendations pertaining to implementation, sustainability, ongoing evaluation, and allocation of resources aimed at best meeting the non-criminogenic needs of young people in custody.
2002- 2010: Aggression Replacement Training (ART): An Australian youth justice evaluation
A longitudinal research project designed to evaluate ART among violent offenders serving a custodial sentence at Malmsbury Youth Justice Custody Centre in Victoria. The key outcome variables were cultural applicability of an American developed programme to Australian youth, recidivism and several psychosocial outcome measures including aggressive behaviours and thoughts, criminogenic cognitive distortions, impulsivity, and social problem solving (see “selected publications”- Currie et al., 2009; in press).
2009 – 2010: Evaluation of Port Phillip Prison Youth Unit
Shelly Turner, Phillipa Evans, Cath Powell and Charlene Pereira contracted to the Monash University Criminal Justice Research Consortium. This evaluation was concerned with providing a description of the aims and structure of the unit including who is eligible, the security status of the prisoners, how many prisoners come through the unit, how many are excluded or drop out, how long they stay, role of mentors, training of mentors, profile of young people, nature and number of programs, frequency of attendance, nature of family support and substance abuse history. It also considered how many of the prisoners in the unit take part in the programs offered and whether there are any patterns in terms of who makes the most use of different programs and who completes programs (in terms of age, offending history and length of sentence). One of the key objectives of the evaluation was to consider the theoretical basis on which the Youth Unit was developed and consider how it relates to the literature on rehabilitative units, taking into account the extent to which the programs delivered are in a way which provides for maximum access by prisoners and complies with the notion of program integrity, thus are the programs delivered as intended.
2009: Parents Entering Prisons: Evaluating Good Care Planning
Ms Charlene Pereira contracted to the Monash University Criminal Justice Research Consortium. The aim of this project was to examine the issues associated with a parent’s entry into prison or for incarceration following arrest or remand in terms of providing appropriate placement and care planning for children during these stages of a parent’s contact with the criminal justice system. The aim of the project was to help inform best practice in this area and contribute to improved care of children and re-integration of offenders following their release from prison. In addition, develop recommendations for future development and reform of government guidelines, policy and legislation.
2006 – 2009: Gain Respect and Increase Personal Power (GRIPP)
A collaborative partnership between Innovative Minds and City of Greater Dandenong funded by Department of Justice Victoria. A three-year pilot program that operated within the Dandenong Court Region. The GRIPP was an early intervention pilot program, developed under the broader Women’s Safety Strategy 2002, designed to reduce the level of fear of violence against women through prevention and education.
2002- 2005: Mobius Youth: A holistic support service for at risk same sex attracted youth
A collaborative project between Matthew Currie and Jax Roan (i.e., Mobius Youth Inc.) and The ALSO Foundation developed in order to ascertain the complex needs of homeless same sex attracted youth (SSAY) in Victoria and produce an evidence-based report arguing the need for the establishment of a community service aimed at meeting the identified service gap. In 2006 this project culminated in the opening of a youth refuge aimed at meeting the needs of homeless same sex attracted youth in Victoria.
2004: Victorian Department of Human Services Youth Homeless Action Plan: Same sex attracted young people service system intervention project
A collaborative funding submission to the Department of Human Services Victoria- Office of Housing prepared by Mobius Youth Inc. and The Richmond Fellowship Australia, with Matthew Currie as the lead researcher and writer. The submission proposed a participatory research design aimed at assessing the provision of existing homelessness services to same sex attracted youth (SSAY), identifying service strengths and weakness, and based upon those findings the subsequent development and implementation of an education and training package aimed at increasing effective service delivery to at risk SSAY.