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NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE REPORTCtrl+P to save as PDF
ALL STATES & TERRITORIES

Australia's Youth Justice
Evidence Base

Every program mapped. Every organisation tracked. Every dollar followed. Every piece of evidence catalogued. This is the most comprehensive view of what works in youth justice across Australia.

1,000

Organisations

1,000

Programs Mapped

$53.3M

Funding Tracked

631

Evidence Items

578

Media Articles

14

Stories

The Cost Equation

Youth Detention

$1.3M

per child per year

85% recidivism rate

260:1

COST RATIO

Community Programs

$5K

median per young person per year

1000 programs with cost data

Australia spends over $1 billion per year on youth detention. Here's what the evidence says works instead. We've mapped 1,000 community programs across 8 states and territories.

State-by-State Intelligence

Sorted by community control percentage among Indigenous organisations. Click a state to explore.

StateOrgsIndigenousCC%ProgramsEvidenceFunding
VIC
2531100%0----
NSW
2635100%0----
QLD
1098100%1
--
WA
9811100%4
--
SA
651100%0----
NT
125100%0----
TAS
2900%0----
ACT
2800%0----
National85731--5--$0

Community Control by State

Percentage of classified Indigenous organisations that are community-controlled. Self-determination in practice.

SA
100%
QLD
100%
NSW
100%
WA
100%
NT
100%
VIC
100%

National Evidence Profile

Distribution of evidence levels across 1,000 mapped programs.

374
513
Proven(4)
Effective(48)
Promising(374)
Indigenous-led(61)
Untested(513)

What “Proven” Means

Programs with replicated RCT or quasi-experimental evidence demonstrating positive outcomes. These are the gold standard -- the programs we can say, with confidence, reduce reoffending.

What “Indigenous-led” Means

Programs grounded in cultural authority with community endorsement. Evidence takes many forms -- including cultural knowledge, community outcomes, and self-determined metrics.

Where the Money Goes

Funding distribution by organisation control type and the top funded organisations nationally.

Funding by Organisation Type (Top 30)

Community Adjacent
$12.3M49%
Intermediary
$12.3M49%
Community Controlled
$326K1%
#OrganisationStateTypeFundingRecords
1QLDIntermediary$5.5M58
2QLDCommunity Adjacent$3.1M145
3NSWCommunity Adjacent$2.8M71
4QLDIntermediary$1.5M100
5QLDCommunity Adjacent$1.5M1
6QLDIntermediary$1.3M89
7QLDCommunity Adjacent$794K17
8NSWIntermediary$736K1
9QLDIntermediary$652K43
10QLDIntermediary$637K35
11QLDCommunity Adjacent$633K19
12QLDCommunity Adjacent$587K36
13QLDCommunity Adjacent$469K27
14QLDCommunity Adjacent$399K23
15QLDIntermediary$359K28
16NSWIntermediary$347K13
17QLDCommunity Adjacent$334K18
18QLDCommunity Controlled$326K6
19QLDIntermediary$277K12
20VICIntermediary$277K1

Board & Governance Network

The human network behind community control. 339,698 board roles mapped, revealing the connective tissue of self-determination.

339,698

Board Roles Mapped

0

Indigenous Org Directors

0

Multi-Board Indigenous Directors

Network Density

Board network data being mapped.

The Invisible Infrastructure of Self-Determination

Behind every community-controlled organisation is a network of directors — often unpaid, often serving across multiple boards — who carry the governance load of self-determination. This data reveals for the first time the scale and interconnection of that network nationally.

Data Quality Dashboard

Radical transparency about our own data. We show what we know, what we don't, and where the gaps are.

Funding Linked to Orgs

89%

157,107 records

Percentage of funding records matched to a known organisation

Programs Linked to Orgs

90.8%

1,000 programs

Programs with a verified operating organisation

ABN Verified Orgs

98,134

of 1,000 orgs

Organisations with an Australian Business Number on file

Help us fill the gaps

This evidence base grows with every contribution. If you run a youth justice program, fund one, or research one -- we want your data. Contact us to add your organisation's programs, funding, or evidence to the national picture.

Talk to ALMA

Regional Deep Dives

Go deeper into the 6 CONTAINED tour stop regions with full community intelligence reports.

The Inquiry Tracker

Decades of inquiries, royal commissions, and reports. Thousands of recommendations. Here's where they stand.

17

Major Inquiries

1,845

Recommendations Made

0

Fully Implemented

From the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1991) to the present day.