- Barwon South West
- Hume
- Gippsland
- Grampians
- Loddon Mallee
- North West Metropolitan
- South East Metropolitan
The Crime Prevention Innovation Fund is part of the Building Safer Communities Program which includes grants and a series of community forums across Victoria.
Funded projects are listed by the Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS) regions (External link) that they are located within.
As some projects fall under more than one region, they appear in the list below more than once.
Regions
Barwon South West
Grant round: 1
Organisation: Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative Limited
Project: Cultural Revival and Cultural Safety for our Young People on Wathaurong Country
Grant funding: $300,000
About the project:
The project aims to create a culturally embedded Healing Place on Wathaurong Country aimed at Aboriginal children and young people and to develop a regional Aboriginal Cultural Safety toolkit and associated resources for use across the justice service sector.
Grant round: 2
Organisation: Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Co-operative Limited
Project: Gulgurn Manja Gariwerd Academy Program
This project also falls under the Grampians region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $300,000
About the project:
The project will support the development of the Gulgurn Manja Gariwerd Academy Program, a culturally informed enhancement program, in the Wimmera South West. This is to address the negative and proportionally higher contact between Aboriginal children and young people and the justice system.
Organisation: Neighbourhood Watch Victoria Inc.
Project: Neighbourhood Watch Pop-up program
This project also falls under the Northern Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $282,194
About the project:
The project aims to:
- enhance feelings of safety, and
- educate residents to protect their property from crime.
It will be delivered through 30 hyper-local neighbourhood engagements focused on street BBQs across 10 estates in Melbourne's north-west region and Greater Geelong. This is to build social cohesion and perceptions of safety.
Hume
Grant round: 1
Organisation: The Centre for Continuing Education Inc.
Project: Finding Strengths
Grant funding: $300,000
About the project:
This pilot program will provide an intensive case management, therapeutic and education approach to support education and employment pathways for young people.
Grant round: 2
Organisation: Aldara Yenara Australia Aboriginal Corporation
Project: Bigauga Imilang Barparrik (Yesterday Today Tomorrow)
Grant funding: $235,070
About the project:
The project will run cultural camps and group sessions for young Aboriginal people aged 8 to 17 in the Campaspe and Moira LGAs. The aim is to strengthen their connection to culture and identity and provide early intervention to prevent antisocial and criminal behaviour.
Gippsland
Grant round: 2
Organisation: Wounds and Wisdom Pty Ltd
Project: Understanding and addressing crime in the community - A Youth Participatory Design
This project also falls under the Northern Metropolitan and South East Metropolitan regions because activity will also occur in those regions.
Grant funding: $193,908
About the project:
The project will produce:
- a feature documentary film
- culturally appropriate short videos, and
- analysis of interviews on young people’s experiences in the justice system.
The aim is to influence service responses to vulnerable young people.
Grampians
Grant round: 2
Organisation: Golden Plains Shire Council
Project: Early intervention crime prevention within a diverse rural area
Grant funding: $298,998
About the project:
The project will focus for young people and their families in Bannockburn and the Golden Plains local government area. The aim is to disrupt identified risk factors and build protective factors against involvement with the justice system by delivering:
- training for employment opportunities
- resilience and wellbeing programs, and
- parenting workshops.
Organisation: Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Co-operative Limited
Project: Gulgurn Manja Gariwerd Academy Program
This project also falls under the Barwon South West region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $300,000
About the project:
The project will support the development of the Gulgurn Manja Gariwerd Academy Program, a culturally informed enhancement program, in the Wimmera South West. This is to address the negative and proportionally higher contact between Aboriginal children and young people and the justice system.
Loddon Mallee
Grant round: 2
Organisation: Greater Bendigo City Council
Project: Community Connections Project
Grant funding: $200,000
About the project:
This project will employ a Community Connections Practitioner to work proactively with:
- vulnerable community members
- traders
- Bendigo Library staff, and
- the Bendigo community.
This is to prevent anti-social and criminal behaviour by:
- addressing social exclusion factors
- strengthening community connections
- providing responsive referrals, and
- education and support.
Organisation: La Trobe University
Project: Preventing drink spiking: Community action to address drug and alcohol facilitated sexual violence in the Bendigo region
Grant funding: $265,876
About the project:
The project will hold a World Cafe Forum, develop a digital platform of stories from diverse victim-survivors and develop a toolbox of resources to prevent drink spiking related sexual violence in the Greater Bendigo region and raise awareness in the community.
North West Metropolitan
Grant round: 1
Organisation: Melbourne City Council
Grant funding: $193,000
About the project:
The project aims to improve personal safety for women and gender diverse people visiting the Melbourne CBD at night through a suite of activities including:
- holding a Night Safety Summit
- developing a Night Safety Charter
- implementing a sexual assault behaviour change and awareness raising campaign, and
- a Good Night Out Accreditation program.
Organisation: Banyule City Council
Project: Towards a Safe, Strong and Resilient Somali Community in Banyule
Grant funding: $299,600
About the project:
The project aims to better support the Somali-Australian community through a suite of activities including:
- parenting support
- life skill development activities for young people
- employment related support, and
- cultural competence development activities for mainstream local services.
Organisation: Paramount Chief Kuol Adol Incorporated
Project: South Sudanese community mentor program for young people at risk
Grant funding: $300,000
About the project:
This project will deliver a culturally specific mentoring program for young South Sudanese Australians, aged 13 to 15, living in Melbourne’s West. Participants will have older siblings engaged in the youth justice system. This will combine with community-led peer-support to mothers and families.
Organisation: North Richmond Community Health Ltd
Project: Deferred Prosecutions Pilot program
Grant funding: $292,120
About the project:
This project will implement an adult pre-charge diversion pilot program in the City of Yarra for individuals facing criminal charges. This is to address factors that contribute to offending and reduce subsequent criminal activity.
Organisation: Youth Activating Youth Inc.
Project: Drop the Knife, Save a Life
This project also falls under the South East Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $297,000
About the project:
This project aims to develop an educational campaign addressing knife crime providing knowledge, support and an increased public perception of community safety. It will work with secondary schools and communities in:
- Brimbank
- Wyndham
- Maribyrnong
- Melton
- Hume
- Moreland
- Moonee Valley
- City of Melbourne, and
- Greater Dandenong.
Organisation: Law and Advocacy Centre for Women Ltd
Project: Community Support Pathways for Women
This project also falls under the South East Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $299,488
About the project:
The project combines involvement with community sporting clubs and activities with case management and peer support to build protective factors against contact with the justice system among women living in metropolitan Melbourne.
Organisation: Swinburne University of Technology
Project: Supporting Pasifika Islander youth towards positive life trajectories
This project also falls under the South East Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $172,655
About the project:
The project will co-design and test a culturally accepted practice model and tools for supporting positive life trajectories among Pasifika young people including through engagement in education.
Organisation: Big Hart Inc.
Project: Something to Talk About
This project also falls under the South East Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $240,000
About the project:
This project aims to use digital art workshops, mentoring and peer to peer messaging to prevent the use of coercive control among students in Years 5-8 at schools in Frankston North.
Organisation: Monash University
Project: Feeling safe in public places: Co-designing community safety strategies in Local Government Areas
This project also falls under the South East Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $296,994
About the project:
This project will develop place-based strategies in:
- Monash
- Wyndham, and
- Melton.
It will also develop a toolkit to enhance feelings of safety and prevent crime and victimisation in public spaces for women and people from migrant backgrounds.
Grant round: 2
Organisation: Dardi Munwurro Pty Ltd
Project: Dardi Youth Foundations
Grant funding: $300,000
About the project:
The project will deliver an early intervention program in the northern metropolitan region that offers:
- vocational skill programs in music production
- multimedia skills, and
- creative arts.
This will be delivered to disengaged and disadvantaged Aboriginal young people to:
- strengthen literacy
- boost confidence, and
- prepare participants for employment.
Organisation: Himilo Ltd
Project: Heidelberg Somali Community Justice Project
Grant funding: $271,000
About the project:
The project is for Somali Australian youth in northern metropolitan Melbourne. It is to provide an innovative and culturally sensitive intervention to address youth crime and youth recidivism by delivering:
- early intervention activities, and
- a pre charge and post charge diversion program.
Organisation: The Youth Junction Incorporated
Project: Youth Early Intervention Behavioural Change Project
Grant funding: $297,473
About the project:
The project will support young people aged 17-25 who use violence within their family. Participants will be from the local government areas of:
- Brimbank
- Hume
- Wyndham, and
- Melton.
The aim is to support and modify their behaviour to promote respectful relationships into their futures and reduce the risk of reoffending.
Organisation: Western Community Legal Centre Limited
Project: Youth Crime Prevention and Early Intervention Project (YCPEIP)
Grant funding: $300,000
About the project:
The Youth Crime Prevention and Early Intervention Project seeks to reduce rates of youth offending and re-offending in Wyndham and Brimbank among young people aged 10-24 years by:
- increasing the use of police pre-charge warnings
- cautions and diversion recommendations
- streamlining referrals to legal and non legal support, and
- providing community legal and non legal education to young people and their families.
Organisation: Neighbourhood Watch Victoria Inc.
Project: Neighbourhood Watch Pop-up program
This project also falls under the Barwon South West region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $282,194
About the project:
The project aims to:
- enhance feelings of safety, and
- educate residents to protect their property from crime.
It will be delivered through 30 hyper-local neighbourhood engagements focused on street BBQs across 10 estates in Melbourne's north-west region and Greater Geelong. This is to build social cohesion and perceptions of safety.
Organisation: Wounds and Wisdom Pty Ltd
Project: Understanding and addressing crime in the community - A Youth Participatory Design
This project also falls under Gippsland and South East Metropolitan regions because activity will also occur in those regions.
Grant funding: $193,908
About the project:
The project will produce:
- a feature documentary film
- culturally appropriate short videos, and
- analysis of interviews on young people’s experiences in the justice system.
The aim is to influence service responses to vulnerable young people.
South East Metropolitan
Grant round: 1
Organisation: Youth Activating Youth Inc.
Project: Drop the Knife, Save a Life
This project also falls under the Northern Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $297,000
About the project:
This project aims to develop an educational campaign addressing knife crime providing knowledge, support and an increased public perception of community safety. It will work with secondary schools and communities in:
- Brimbank
- Wyndham
- Maribyrnong
- Melton
- Hume
- Moreland
- Moonee Valley
- City of Melbourne, and
- Greater Dandenong.
Organisation: Law and Advocacy Centre for Women Ltd
Project: Community Support Pathways for Women
This project also falls under the Northern Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $299,488
About the project:
The project combines involvement with community sporting clubs and activities with case management and peer support to build protective factors against contact with the justice system among women living in metropolitan Melbourne.
Organisation: Swinburne University of Technology
Project: Supporting Pasifika Islander youth towards positive life trajectories
This project also falls under the Northern Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $172,655
About the project:
The project will co-design and test a culturally accepted practice model and tools for supporting positive life trajectories among Pasifika young people including through engagement in education.
Organisation: Big Hart Inc.
Project: Something to Talk About
This project also falls under the Northern Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $240,000
About the project:
This project aims to use digital art workshops, mentoring and peer to peer messaging to prevent the use of coercive control among students in Years 5-8 at schools in Frankston North.
Organisation: Monash University
Project: Feeling safe in public places: Co-designing community safety strategies in Local Government Areas
This project also falls under the Northern Metropolitan region because activity will also occur in that region.
Grant funding: $296,994
About the project:
This project will develop place-based strategies in:
- Monash
- Wyndham, and
- Melton.
It will also develop a toolkit to enhance feelings of safety and prevent crime and victimisation in public spaces for women and people from migrant backgrounds.
Grant round: 2
Organisation: Eastern Domestic Violence Service Inc.
Project: Leaders For Change
Grant funding: $254,000
About the project:
The project will engage up to 50 young people aged 15-25 living in Melbourne's eastern region in a leadership program that empowers them to develop projects to address
- family violence
- promotion of respectful relationships.
They will also co-design a family violence prevention leadership model and resource guide.
Organisation: Wounds and Wisdom Pty Ltd
Project: Understanding and addressing crime in the community - A Youth Participatory Design
This project also falls under Gippsland and Northern Metropolitan regions because activity will also occur in those regions.
Grant funding: $193,908
About the project:
The project will produce:
- a feature documentary film
- culturally appropriate short videos, and
- analysis of interviews on young people’s experiences in the justice system.
The aim is to influence service responses to vulnerable young people.