Activity / outputSource confirmed2025
443 people across 18 locations over 372 hours
Community engagement (outreach reach)
“visiting 18 locations across the valley, engaging with 443 people over a total of 372 hours”
View the source →← The justice reinvestment network/learning-the-macleay/images/KBHAC002-LTM-Logo-HOZ-NEG-Mar25.png)
Learning the Macleay, Kempsey
Kempsey, NSW
Just Reinvest NSWGrowing recordPublic record
Justice reinvestment in Kempsey is delivered through Learning the Macleay, a community-led, place-based initiative on Dunghutti Country supported by Just Reinvest NSW and hosted by Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation.
Impact on the record
What the public record shows
Every figure carries the source it came from and a label for what kind of figure it is, so an evaluated outcome is never confused with a projection, a background number, or a figure from a related program. Most sites here were funded in the 2024 and 2025 Commonwealth rounds, and the first evaluations under the national framework begin from late 2026. An empty panel is an honest early-stage record, not a failure.
Activity / outputSource confirmed2025
more than 1,800 people
Event attendance (Yuwa Nyinda Dream Academy and Community Celebration)
“more than 1,800 people attended the Yuwa Nyinda Dream Academy and Community Celebration”
View the source →Activity / outputSource confirmed2025
384 young people
Young people consulted (lived-experience data gathering)
“384 young people shared their experiences growing up in the area”
View the source →Context baselineSource confirmed2025
$2.7 million over five years (~$500,000 annually) to end of 2028-29 FY
Phase 2 funding committed
“$2.7 million in funding over five years, about $500,000 annually, through to the end of the 2028-2029 financial year”
View the source →Context baselineSource confirmed2023
$9.8 million over four years (within a $20m package)
NSW Government justice reinvestment expansion funding (Kempsey & Nowra)
“$9.8 million for new justice reinvestment pilots”
View the source →Context baselineSource confirmed
up 36.4% over the decade (3,524 avg daily)
Aboriginal adult imprisonment context (NSW)
“The average daily number of Aboriginal adult prisoners in NSW increased by 36.4% in the last decade (3524)”
View the source →The ledger in plain view
Funding on record (lead organisation)
$3,540,000
Cost of detaining one child for a year
$1,300,000
ROGS 2026 national average
Equivalent child-years of detention
3
This is funding recorded against the lead organisation, not the site-specific federal allocation, which governments publish only as national envelopes. The comparison sets what a community receives against the price of a single cell, so the question moves from whether to fund the community to why we still fund the cell.
- $3,540,000prf-jr-portfolio-review-2025
- Amount not recordedprf-partner-network
What runs here
Programs and approaches
Learning the Macleay - Kempsey Systems Change Partnership
Justice reinvestment partnership in Kempsey focused on systems change. Works alongside Aboriginal community to redesign how justice systems interact with local people.
- Learning the Macleay (LtM)
- Justice Reinvestment (Kempsey / Dunghutti Country)
- Learning Circle
- Community Research and Data Officer role
- Yuwa Nyinda Dream Academy and Community Celebration
- Digital Storytelling training program
The lead organisation also supports
Community Leading JR - Moree
Aboriginal community-led justice reinvestment program in Moree, NSW. Part of Just Reinvest NSW statewide initiative focused on reducing over-imprisonment through community-developed solutions.
Cowra Justice Reinvestment
Service provided by Just Reinvest NSW
Designing a Justice Reinvestment Mechanism for New South Wales
This initiative calls for governments and Aboriginal communities to collaborate in designing a policy mechanism for justice reinvestment in New South Wales, focusing on community-led approaches to reduce contact with the criminal justice system.
Just Reinvest New South Wales (JRNSW)
An organization working to 'reinvest' public money spent on expanding prisons into programs run by and for Indigenous Communities that can reduce incarceration, specifically within New South Wales.
Just Reinvest NSW - Moree
Community backbone support
Just Reinvest NSW - Mount Druitt
Community backbone support
The people
Who leads the work
The arc
How this site came to be
2023
27 February 2023: NSW Government announced community consultation to expand Justice Reinvestment in Kempsey and Nowra, part of a $9.8 million / $20 million justice package in the 2022/23 Budget.
Source →2023
Early 2023: 30 community members and local service providers came together to form a Learning Circle in Kempsey/the Macleay Valley.
Source →2023
May 2023: Just Reinvest NSW was invited back to Dunghutti Country to continue working alongside 'Learning the Macleay'.
Source →2023
June 2023: NSW Government committed to backing the justice reinvestment approach in Kempsey and the Macleay Valley (DCJ funding $2.5m to Just Reinvest NSW for Kempsey and Nowra, June 2023 to June 2027).
Source →2025
2025: Learning the Macleay entered its 'second phase' with new funding of $2.7 million over five years through to the 2028-2029 financial year; marked two years of community-driven change.
Source →
In the record
News and reports
- Learning the Macleay marks two years of community-driven change
The Macleay Argus · 2025-05-06
- Communities in Dunghutti Country (Kempsey and the Macleay Valley) and Nowra ready for JR
Just Reinvest NSW · 2023-07-26
- Investing in better justice for Aboriginal people
NSW Department of Communities and Justice · 2023-02-27
- Just Reinvest NSW 2025 Research Agenda Launched for Future Reinvestment
Just Reinvest NSW
The network
Connected sites
About this page
This is a public record built from sources in the open, not yet a profile the community holds. Just Reinvest NSW is the editor of record once it claims this page. When a site claims it, the community decides what the world sees, names its own people, and publishes its own figures. We can stage a page. The community publishes it.