ProjectionSource confirmed2025
73
Children/young people prevented from returning to detention
“PRF estimates the partners prevented 73 children and young people from going back to detention”
View the source →← The justice reinvestment network
Tiraapendi Wodli, Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide, SA
Tiraapendi Wodli LtdDetailed recordPublic record
Tiraapendi Wodli ("protecting home" in Kaurna) is a community-led Aboriginal justice reinvestment initiative in Port Adelaide, South Australia, run in partnership with the local Aboriginal Leadership Group, Australian Red Cross and Justice Reinvestment SA.
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.
Context baselineSource confirmed
50%
SA prison population growth over the past decade
“Over the past decade, South Australia's prison population has grown by 50%”
View the source →Context baselineSource confirmed
23 times more likely
Aboriginal youth detention disparity in SA
“Aboriginal young people in South Australia are 23 times more likely to be placed in detention that non-Aboriginal young people”
View the source →Context baselineSource confirmed
over $150 million a year
Annual SA prison spending
“we now spend over $150 million a year keeping people in prison”
View the source →Context baselineSource confirmed
more than $1 million a year per child
Cost of youth detention per child
“youth detention, which costs more than $1 million a year per child”
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
What runs here
Programs and approaches
Tiraapendi Wodli Justice Reinvestment
Place-based JR addressing over-incarceration in Port Adelaide/Enfield. Governed by 9-member elected Aboriginal Leadership Group since 2018.
- Tiraapendi Wodli Hub (Aboriginal community hub, 36 Dale St, Port Adelaide)
- Understanding, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (UMEL) framework / project (2023-26)
- Aboriginal Families Thrive Program
- Tiraapendi Wodli Action Plan 2019-21
The lead organisation also supports
20 Steps Post-Prison Release Support
Structured post-release support for Aboriginal people leaving SA prisons. Addresses the critical transition period.
Aboriginal Families Thrive
Wraparound support for Aboriginal families in Port Adelaide/Enfield. Holistic family-centred approach to reducing justice contact.
Tiraapendi Wodli
Community-led justice reinvestment program
TW Cultural Connections
Cultural programs for Aboriginal families and children. Reconnection to Country, language, and identity.
TW Men's Program
Weekly men's gathering (Fridays 10am-12pm) for cultural connection, healing, and peer support.
TW Women's Gatherings
Regular women's gatherings for cultural connection, healing, and community building.
The people
Who leads the work
Deb Moyle
Tiraapendi Wodli Lead / Chief Executive Officer
Source →Syd Sparrow
Inaugural Tiraapendi Wodli Independent Chairperson
Source →Associate Professor Alwin Chong
Evaluation lead (UMEL community-based evaluation)
Source →Associate Professor Fiona Arney
Evaluation lead (UMEL community-based evaluation)
Source →Dr Martine Hawkes
Evaluation lead (UMEL community-based evaluation)
Source →
The arc
How this site came to be
2018
Port Adelaide Aboriginal Leadership Group formed (March 2018) to begin visioning a justice reinvestment approach; project began in earnest in 2018 as a collaboration between the Tiraapendi Wodli Aboriginal leadership group, the local Aboriginal community, Australian Red Cross and Justice Reinvestment SA.
Source →2018
Inaugural Tiraapendi Wodli Action Plan 2019-21 released (December 2018), focusing on four populations: primary school children, young people, men and families.
Source →2023
Released a Theory of Change framework; in October 2023 Red Cross, Tiraapendi Wodli and Justice Reinvestment SA formed a partnership with the Paul Ramsay Foundation to implement the Understanding, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (UMEL) framework (2023-26).
Source →2024
Community evaluators began implementation of the evaluation with Associate Professors Alwin Chong and Fiona Arney and Dr Martine Hawkes (early 2024).
Source →2025
Tiraapendi Wodli formally registered as Tiraapendi Wodli Ltd on 4 April 2025, working towards independent operations.
Source →
In the record
News and reports
- Tiraapendi Wodli: Providing hope and opportunity
Paul Ramsay Foundation
- Tiraapendi Wodli Port Adelaide justice reinvestment project
National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (DSS)
- Justice reinvestment: a community driven process to tackle root causes of crime among Aboriginal youth
Law Society of SA Bulletin · 2021-11
- Tiraapendi Wodli leads Aboriginal-first project in South Australian justice reinvestment at Port Adelaide
Adelaide AZ
- TIRAAPENDI WODLI Aboriginal Families Thrive Program (Deb Moyle, Port Adelaide)
Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse · 2021
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. Tiraapendi Wodli Ltd 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, publishes its own figures, and shares photos of its work with consent. We can stage a page. The community publishes it.
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