Campaigns we support

From time to time, we add our voice to wider campaigns that share our vision and goals. We are currently involved in the following campaigns and coalitions:

Family Matters

Family Matters is Australia’s national campaign to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people grow up safe and cared for in family, community and culture. Specifically, the campaign works to address the over-representation of our children and young people in out-of-home care systems across each Australian state and territory.

The campaign is led by SNAICC, the national peak body for Aboriginal children and families. It is supported by more than 150 organisations as well as several influential individuals. AbSec leads the NSW Family Matters Collective, which unites supporters in our state and focuses on issues specific to our region.

Raise The Age

As a member of the Raise The Age campaign, AbSec, along with numerous other organisations, is calling for all state, territory and Commonwealth governments to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility in Australia to at least 14.

In just one year across Australia close to 600 children aged 10 to 13 year were locked up, with thousands more hauled through the criminal legal system. Aboriginal children are disproportionately impacted, accounting for 65 per cent of these young children in prisons,

We believe children belong in classrooms and playgrounds, not handcuffs and prison cells. To join the national alliance and add your name to the petition, go to the Raise The Age website.

The Home Stretch

AbSec joins more than 100 organisations across Australia through The Home Stretch campaign, which calls for out-of-home care supports to be extended to young people up to the age of 21.

Currently, young people removed from their families are required to leave the care system when they turn 18. Many become homeless, involved with the criminal justice system, unemployed or starting their own family within the first 12 months of leaving care.

We believe every child deserves to be supported into adulthood and given the best chance at life.

Visit The Home Stretch website to add your voice to the campaign.

Just Reinvest

We are an organisational member of Just Reinvest NSW, supporting them in their mission to let people know about justice reinvestment and why it should become policy in NSW.

Justice reinvestment reallocates taxpayer dollars from prisons and invests them back into communities where it’s needed most. It’s about investing locally where crime is occurring to address the particular problems facing individuals and communities. In NSW, Bourke and Cowra are pilot sites for justice reinvestment programs.

If you agree we need to spend money on people, not prisons, check out the ways you can get involved on the Just Reinvest website.