Australia spends $1.3M per year to detain one young person. In the Northern Territory, it's $1.3M. The reoffending rate sits above 80%. Indigenous young people make up over 60% of those detained.
In Alice Springs, a small organisation is showing what happens when the community closest to these young people leads the response.
Who They Are
Oonchiumpa is a 100% Aboriginal community-controlled organisation working across Central Australia. Founded by Kristy Bloomfield — a Central Arrernte, Eastern Arrernte and Alyawarra woman, Traditional Owner of Mparntwe — and Tanya Turner — an Eastern Arrernte woman who graduated from UWA law school, worked as an Associate at the Supreme Court of Victoria, and came home to bring legal expertise alongside community wisdom.
They built Oonchiumpa because they saw what everyone saw — young Aboriginal people filling the justice system — and decided to do something different. Not another program designed by outsiders with good intentions. Leadership rooted in cultural authority, family connection, and the understanding that these are their kids, their Country, their responsibility.
“These aren't 'bad kids', they're children without basics many Australians take for granted. The system responds with detention that costs millions and changes nothing. We respond with cultural connection, practical support, and the authority that comes from being their Elders, their Traditional Owners, their family.”
Kristy Bloomfield, Co-Founder & Director
The cultural backbone runs deep. Aunty Bev and Uncle Terry serve as cultural advisors — custodians of Alice Springs' history. Max Bloomfield, a Traditional Owner of Atnarpa (Loves Creek Station), connects the work to Country east of Alice Springs. His father Henry grew up at Atnarpa, and the family has maintained that connection through generations of cultural practice and ceremony.
What They Do
Oonchiumpa runs four interconnected programs, each grounded in relationship and cultural authority:
Youth Mentorship & Cultural Healing
Aboriginal youth workers and cultural mentors walking alongside young people for years, not weeks. Case planning, care team meetings, and consistent presence — rides to school, cinema trips, showing up when no one else does.
True Justice: Deep Listening on Country
A partnership with Professor Helen Milroy and the Australian National University. Training the next generation of lawyers, magistrates, and law makers in restorative justice approaches grounded in First Nations knowledge.
Atnarpa Homestead On-Country Experiences
Cultural camps on Max Bloomfield’s family country in the MacDonnell Ranges, east of Alice Springs. Reconnecting young people to land, language, and identity through on-country experiences with Elders and Traditional Owners.
Cultural Brokerage & Service Navigation
Connecting young people across 7 language groups within a 150km radius of Alice Springs with the 32+ partner organisations that can help. Not replacing services — navigating a system that young people and families find impossible alone.
What the Results Look Like
When NT Police ran Operation Luna — a targeted list of 21 high-risk young people in Alice Springs — Oonchiumpa worked with them. By December, only one remained on that list.
Across their programs: 95% diversion success. 72% of disengaged youth have returned to education. The entire operation runs at 97.6% less cost than putting one child in detention.
But the numbers only tell part of it. The model is built on something the system doesn't measure: trust earned over years.
“He Trusts Us. We Earned That Trust.”
Fred Campbell is a youth case worker at Oonchiumpa. He married into the Bloomfield family. He guides younger employees, does case planning, runs care team meetings.
Fred told us about a young man named Xavier — one of Oonchiumpa's first clients, 3-4 years ago. Xavier has a disability. Other service providers didn't share that information. When the relationship got hard, those services “distanced” from him.
Oonchiumpa didn't.
“He trusts us. We earned that trust.”
Fred Campbell, Youth Case Worker
Xavier was released from detention at the start of the year. He hasn't been back in trouble. When he got the chance to build a Stretch Bed — a bed made from recycled plastic designed for remote communities — Xavier led the work. Despite reports about his “ability to understand,” he knew exactly what he was doing.
“He just was so proud showing them that he can build it. After that he felt so happy about himself… He's quite capable of building that on his own and sharing that onto other kids.”
Fred Campbell, on Xavier
Fred sees immediate community use for the beds: ceremony business, bush trips, sleeping off the ground (snakes, scabies from dogs on mattresses), preventing rheumatic heart disease. Families move away from a place after a death (sorry business) — portable beds are perfect for this cultural practice.
Xavier's transformation didn't come from a structured intervention. It came from being trusted with real work. That's Oonchiumpa's model in one story.
What Young People Actually Say
We sat down with young people connected to Oonchiumpa. Not for a report. To listen.
Jackquann, 14
Lives with his grandfather at Upper Camp. Loves basketball. Has been to the Alice Springs Detention Centre.
When asked what detention is like: “At six o'clock you get locked down. You wait till tomorrow.”
What would stop him getting in trouble: “Looking after my family.”
What he'd tell politicians: “Programs.”
Nigel, 14
Lives at a station in Double Camp. Likes school. Wants to be a footy player. Knows he needs to “go to school every day” to get there.
On being away from home: “Bad. Like, going away from my family and stuff.”
Oonchiumpa picks him up, takes him to school, takes him to the cinema. He has the goal. What was missing was someone to walk the path with him.
Laquisha, 16
Lives with her auntie. Manages a complex living situation with more maturity than most adults. Goes to St Joseph's. Wants her driver's licence. Wants to travel.
Sent to Darwin youth detention — 1,500km from home. Twelve-minute phone calls. Two-hour waits between calls.
“I don't like going to Darwin cause I have no family there.”
When asked why young people get in trouble, she said one word without hesitation: “Oppression.”
Every young person names family as the primary thing detention takes away. Not freedom — family. Home is complex — camps have drinking, overcrowding — but nobody says “I need a new home.” They say “that's home.” The need isn't removal from community. It's making community safer and more supportive.
Why It Works
Stay when others distance
Other services wrote off Xavier. Oonchiumpa built trust over years. The system fails by distancing when relationships get hard.
Treat young people as capable
Xavier led the bed-building. Jackquann wants to look after his family. Laquisha manages a complex life with extraordinary clarity. These aren’t deficits — they’re strengths.
Family is the unit, not the individual
Fred: "We say to you guys, you know, your family now." Every interaction reinforces identity, belonging, and connection.
Practical support, not just programs
Rides to school. Cinema trips. Showing up consistently. The consistency is the intervention.
Culture is protection
When young people know who they are, where they come from, and who their family is, they make different choices.
What Comes Next
Oonchiumpa isn't standing still. They're deepening what works and sharing it with others.
Atnarpa Homestead
On-Country cultural camps in the MacDonnell Ranges. Young people reconnecting to land, language, and ceremony with Elders and Traditional Owners. Bush tucker, art, deep listening — the things Jackquann said he wants to learn.
Learning Across Borders
In June 2026, eight Oonchiumpa staff are travelling to South East Queensland — visiting community organisations, sharing models, building relationships, learning from what others have built.
True Justice Expansion
The ANU partnership is growing. Deep listening, restorative justice, and First Nations knowledge shaping how the next generation of legal professionals understand justice — not as punishment, but as healing.
Community Enterprise
Young people building Stretch Beds from recycled plastic. Not charity — enterprise. Community members collecting waste, making products, learning trades. Xavier showed what’s possible when you trust young people with real work.
The Numbers
Detention (NT)
$1.3M
per young person per year
$3K/day · 80%+ reoffending
Oonchiumpa
97.6% less
for the entire operation
95% diversion · 72% school re-engagement
Fred Campbell put it simply: the system fails young people by not sharing information, by distancing when relationships get hard, by writing off capability.
Oonchiumpa succeeds by doing the opposite. Staying. Earning trust over years. Treating young people as capable. Being family.
Xavier built a bed. Jackquann wants to look after his grandfather. Nigel wants to play footy. Laquisha named the root cause in one word. The alternative to detention isn't theoretical. It lives in community. In Alice Springs, it's called Oonchiumpa.
Young people's stories are sourced from Empathy Ledger transcripts with consent protocols in place. Names used with permission. Detention cost data sourced from the Productivity Commission Report on Government Services (ROGS), Table 17A.20.