Walking alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, cultivating healing and thriving through their justice journey
Community Support
Your Journey, Our Support
The Throughcare Programme, in partnership with ACT Corrective Services, provides culturally safe, trauma-informed services to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients and their families after release. Through case management, we integrate and coordinate services to ensure a holistic approach, helping you reintegrate into the community, achieve stability, and pursue long-term goals. This empowers you to rebuild your life with hope, dignity, and community connection.
Case Management
Our case managers work closely with you to implement personalised plans, coordinating culturally safe, trauma-informed services to support your reintegration and long-term stability. Each plan is tailored to your individual journey, with the duration and focus adjusted based on your needs and commitment to change. Together, we develop a personalised plan, initiated in prison, to support your return to the Yeddung Mura community. This plan focuses on holistic well-being, reducing reoffending, and building resilience through Empowerment Yarning Circles, where you can navigate setbacks in a culturally safe space. We assist with practical needs, such as obtaining ID, a Medicare card, or a driver’s licence, and provide financial management support, including securing Centrelink payments, setting up deductions for rent and utilities, and offering budgeting guidance. We also explore your career aspirations, identify training opportunities, and plan for employment to foster financial independence, self-esteem, and community connection. This plan helps you reconnect with family, culture, and community in a meaningful way. At the end of this phase, we’ll develop a plan to guide you towards sustained independence and stability.
Accommodation
Yeddung Mura’s Accommodation Service supports Aboriginal ex-detainees during custody and after release by ensuring a safe, stable place to call home, in cooperation with the ACT Government and sector partners. We provide transport to your accommodation and assist with immediate housing needs, such as securing transitional housing for up to 6 weeks through our Good Pathways model, offering a supportive, homelike atmosphere to give you a strong start in your journey back to the Yeddung Mura community. We offer intensive support to secure and maintain stable housing, providing up to 6 weeks of transitional housing with a maximum of two 6-week extensions, and assist with applications, tenancy agreements, and connections to housing services. To sustain long-term housing stability, we support you with tenancy skills, financial planning for rent, and connections to community resources, while also providing dedicated support for meaningful employment and education to empower you to participate fully in your community, celebrating every step toward building a stable home for your future.
Chaplaincy
As part of the Yeddung Mura Chaplaincy Program, our team of Aboriginal Elders, respectfully known as Uncles—a title reflecting their cultural significance, wisdom, and role as trusted community leaders—offers culturally safe, trauma-informed care to support your spiritual and emotional well-being as you reintegrate into community with hope and resilience across three key phases. Recognised for their compassionate hearts and skills in supporting mental well-being and spiritual needs, our Uncles provide a listening ear, prayers, and guidance, helping you find hope, healing, and strength while continuing the trusting relationship built throughout your justice journey. We offer intensive support to improve your emotional and mental health, reduce substance abuse, and increase family support. Our Uncles assist with grief and crisis support, provide counselling, and foster hope in times of hopelessness, helping you build a strong foundation for reintegration.
Drop-In Centre
The Drop-In Centre provides a safe space to support your reintegration into community, offering emotional care, practical assistance, and a place to connect with others as you rebuild your life. Engage in recreational activities like tennis courts, pool tables, video games, and table tennis, or participate in fitness training, Aboriginal Art classes, DIY projects, guitar lessons, and printing artwork on mugs. We’re also working to introduce pets for therapy to promote healing and keep you engaged in a drug-free environment. Aboriginal Elders provide mentoring, offering cultural guidance, while our industrial kitchen offers training as a kitchen hand to secure employment, supporting your reintegration with healthy meals provided daily.
Family Support
Family support is provided to help you reconnect and strengthen family bonds, ensuring your family remains resilient as you reintegrate into community. We provide intensive support to rebuild family relationships, offering culturally safe mediation, emotional support, and resources to address challenges like estrangement or family violence, helping you lay the groundwork for lasting connection. We also host regular family community events, focusing on shared activities like family picnics and community sports days, to support your reintegration and strengthen family bonds in a culturally safe space.
Mentoring
Mentoring is provided to help you reintegrate into community and achieve long-term well-being, offering guidance and emotional support to navigate this transition with resilience. We provide intensive mentoring by Aboriginal volunteers and Elders, who have received specialist training to help you establish support networks, promote healthy decision-making, and enhance social skills, drawing on the global success of mentoring programs for Indigenous detainees in Canada, New Zealand, and America, while being equipped with smartphones to answer your calls for ongoing support. They also offer culturally safe, one-on-one counselling sessions to address challenges like grief, crisis, or substance abuse, develop coping strategies to manage stress, anxiety, or trauma, and support family reunification, helping you build a strong foundation for reintegration with self-confidence, self-esteem, and cultural connections.
Parole Reporting
Parole reporting support is provided to ensure compliance and community reintegration. For the initial months post-release, we provide intensive support to help you meet regular parole reporting requirements, offering transport to and from appointments and ongoing mentoring to navigate the process. Our mentors provide one-on-one support to build confidence, promote healthy decision-making, and ensure you stay on track with parole conditions as you reintegrate.
Peer Support
Peer support is provided through group activities and yarning circles to help you reintegrate into community and achieve long-term well-being. Intensive peer support builds bonds with others who share similar stories, focusing on hearing inspiring accounts of successful change to boost your confidence and social skills. These culturally safe spaces help you navigate challenges, cultivate a sense of belonging, and create connections that can continue to support you in your broader life as you reintegrate.
Transport
Transport support is provided to help you access essential services and reintegrate into community. We provide intensive transportation support to ensure you can attend regular parole reporting, medical appointments, yarning circles, and other essential activities, offering culturally safe transport to help you navigate these commitments and build stability as you reintegrate into community.