The Dharriwaa Elders Group (DEG) wrote to NSW Premier Bob Carr in February 2004 requesting services for youth in Walgett. The letter cited the need for supported youth accommodation, local work training programs for juvenile offenders, counselling for troubled youth and their families, supervision of young offenders by elders and services that promote more opportunities for elders and youth to mix including a Granny and Pop Patrol.
The DEG then approached the Walgett Interagency - a network of Walgett service providers that meets monthly. It enthusiastically supported the proposal at its meeting 9 March 2004 and suggested that the Walgett Shire Council’s draft "Youth Plan" should conform with the submission. They also suggested that a survey of current Walgett youth services would be useful to reveal where the gaps are.
DEG conducted a survey of youth services currently delivered in Walgett and presented the results to the next meeting. Gaps were clearly visible. From that workshop, the Dharriwaa Elders Group developed the "Walgett Youth Priorities" plan of June 2004 with the aim of working towards developing a whole-of-community vision, funding and management of Walgett youth services. The Plan includes supported youth accomodation; a youth centre and program of activities and services; a youth work, training and enterprise development program; a young offenders family healing program located on a property outside Walgett; an elders night patrol and mobile soup kitchen; locally-produced and delivered cultural awareness programs and a welcoming committee for stranger professionals working in town for short periods.
This Plan was presented to the Walgett Interagency and Walgett Community Working Party. In March 2005 a subcommittee of the Walgett Interagency was established to implement the Plan. This group reports to the both bodies monthly and has been convening meetings with regional government decisionmakers for each component of the Plan. The committee has had small successes, eg attracting the PCYC and other experienced youth organisations to the town, developing a Flexible Overnight Accommodation program for streetkids, working to place proposals for new services to meet unmet needs in the COAG Trial Action Plans.
Youth Off the Streets and Mackillop Community and Rural Services have just begun new youth programs in Walgett for older children with the encouragement and support of the Subcommittee.