Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Brother 2 Another’s Jaye Cardona says the not-for-profit group works with disengaged youth and their families providing a range of cultural and wellbeing support

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Brother 2 Another’s Jaye Cardona says the not-for-profit group works with disengaged youth and their families providing a range of cultural and wellbeing support · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: There has been a lot of discussion on this show.
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  Speaker 1: I think that all of us will agree about crime.
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  Speaker 1: But we've been contacted by quite a few listeners actually
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  Speaker 1: suggesting that we get in touch with some of the
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  Speaker 1: people behind the various youth programs across the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 1: And one of those groups that had been raised with
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  Speaker 1: me on a few different occasions is Brother to Another.
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  Speaker 1: Now it's a First Nations not for profit working to
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  Speaker 1: address the gaps in the youth justice and out of
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  Speaker 1: home care systems. And joining me in the studio to
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  Speaker 1: tell us a little bit more about it is Jai Cardonah.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Ji, good.
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  Speaker 3: Morning, Thanks so much for having me on.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you so much for coming in now. Ji, firstly,
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  Speaker 1: can you tell me a little bit more about this
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  Speaker 1: program and how it came about.
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  Speaker 3: Yep.
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  Speaker 4: So, firstly, I'm a dah and born territory in So
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  Speaker 4: I'm a can Oragon Barti and Benarragon Man, and I've
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  Speaker 4: been really really fortunate to be a part of this
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  Speaker 4: quite new non for profit. It's an Aboriginal First Nation's
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  Speaker 4: male led organization with some really special people who are
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  Speaker 4: taking all of their skills, lived and education in the
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  Speaker 4: space in together and really looking at what are the
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  Speaker 4: strengths based approaches that we can have. So we're an
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  Speaker 4: outreach service that focuses on social, emotional and cultural wellbeing.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the thing that some people might be surprised to
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  Speaker 1: hear is like this is run this is a philanthropic
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  Speaker 1: so it's not actually territory government funded.
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  Speaker 2: It's something that you guys.
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  Speaker 1: Have obviously decided we want to make some change in
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  Speaker 1: this space, and you've stepped up and you're doing it
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  Speaker 1: off your own back, which I think is incredible.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's a really special thing about Brother
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  Speaker 4: to another is that we're bringing resources and funding into
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  Speaker 4: the territory to run this program and look at what
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  Speaker 4: does work. Another part of what we do is that
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  Speaker 4: we've even brought research bodies in to collect our data sets.
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  Speaker 4: So we're also creating a whole new data set of
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  Speaker 4: strength based data and evidence based to show what actually does.
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  Speaker 3: Work when we work with youth.
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  Speaker 4: In young people, we strategically align ourselves so we look
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  Speaker 4: at who are their peer groups who are influencing them,
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  Speaker 4: and also we work with the families. So quite quickly,
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  Speaker 4: if we take a referral on with one person. We're
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  Speaker 4: taking on the brothers, we're taking on the mother's needs,
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  Speaker 4: the grandparents and as a beauty in that because that's
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  Speaker 4: a cultural way of working for us too, and it
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  Speaker 4: does mean that we may have a slightly smaller case
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  Speaker 4: load as far as that young person, but we're really
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  Speaker 4: looking at those influencers around the young person. We've also
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  Speaker 4: got a layered mentorship and case management approach where we
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  Speaker 4: want to build the older young people. So we're talking
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  Speaker 4: about sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty one year olds to
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  Speaker 4: be positive mentors for their little brothers in cousins and.
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  Speaker 3: Whatnot.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's a great, a great thing to do
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  Speaker 1: because I think so often like you sort of get
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  Speaker 1: to that age when you're a teenager. I think when
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  Speaker 1: you're really young, you take so much notice of what
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  Speaker 1: your parents tell you, and you know, you obviously follow them,
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  Speaker 1: but then you kind of get to that age where
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  Speaker 1: you're a teenager where your peers do become the people
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  Speaker 1: that you take notice of. And if you've got good
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  Speaker 1: positive role models to take notice of, that's surely got
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  Speaker 1: to be a good thing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's an awesome thing.
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  Speaker 4: And I know at times where you know, I really
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  Speaker 4: struggle with my mental health throughout my life, and particularly
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  Speaker 4: as an adolescent and a teenager, and the people that
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  Speaker 4: often kept me going and improving my well being and
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  Speaker 4: getting my life back on track was being involved in
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  Speaker 4: community groups and also positive Aboriginal male mentors who understood,
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  Speaker 4: I guess, the struggles that I have, the annoyances that
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  Speaker 4: I have with the world at times, but also the
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  Speaker 4: beauty of what it is to be Aboriginal, and that's
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  Speaker 4: a really special thing to have that, you know, if
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  Speaker 4: we can, I guess, build up a workforce, and that's
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  Speaker 4: another part of Brother to Another is that we've got
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  Speaker 4: a workforce development side where we're building up local First
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  Speaker 4: Nations workers and workforce so they can utilize lived the
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  Speaker 4: experience but also look after themselves because we don't just
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  Speaker 4: clock off at four twenty one, and we're still part
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  Speaker 4: of the communities. You know, I know the grandmothers of
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  Speaker 4: some of the youth that we work with. We've got
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  Speaker 4: families who know my families from generations. So we've got
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  Speaker 4: that accountability to community, not just in a broader sense,
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  Speaker 4: but in our community family groups as well.
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  Speaker 1: Do I talk us through you know, obviously don't give
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  Speaker 1: us individual names or anything like that, but talk me
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  Speaker 1: through some of the examples of some of the work
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  Speaker 1: that you've done, like with youths yep.
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  Speaker 4: So I know one example is with a young fella,
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  Speaker 4: say he's quite young, so under twelve. We and he
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  Speaker 4: had actually gone into Dondale as well, and so when
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  Speaker 4: we engage with him, we began engaging with him and
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  Speaker 4: his grandparents, his mum, and his brother. This is a
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  Speaker 4: young person with many you know, I guess you could
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  Speaker 4: say disabilities or challenges with fas D and AHD and
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  Speaker 4: things like that. And so what we did is we
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  Speaker 4: work a lot on sensory work as well, and one
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  Speaker 4: part was connecting him back to country and something we
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  Speaker 4: can touch on a bit later, but really utilizing the
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  Speaker 4: sense his censory work. And I guess what the strengths
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  Speaker 4: are with him. I think one of the biggest wins
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  Speaker 4: that we had, which we really really I was really
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  Speaker 4: proud of, was him going back to school. And when
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  Speaker 4: we talk about restorative justice and restorative functions, there's a
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  Speaker 4: bit about reintegration to all the groups and part of society,
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  Speaker 4: and we really see our restorative side even with the schools.
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  Speaker 3: So we worked quite closely with.
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  Speaker 4: The principal and teacher of this young person, to the
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  Speaker 4: point where we actually went into the schools to support
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  Speaker 4: the young person in the class, to see him, you know,
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  Speaker 4: with a uniform on and his hair combed and winning prizes.
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  Speaker 4: He was winning prizes in classroom for his learning, and
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  Speaker 4: it was such a positive experience. And of course, like
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  Speaker 4: we're talking long term change, so we're going to have
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  Speaker 4: the ups and downs.
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  Speaker 3: It's not just going to be this pretty.
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  Speaker 4: Picture where you have a service come in and we're
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  Speaker 4: not the be all end or like, there's so many
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  Speaker 4: different ways, and we know there's a lot of people
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  Speaker 4: who have different angles and sit on either side of
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  Speaker 4: the fence, and we need it all to come in
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  Speaker 4: and collaborate. But to see this young person succeed, be
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  Speaker 4: part of the school days, be part of excursions was
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  Speaker 4: a really big positive. It's still a long journey we
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  Speaker 4: even really enjoyed having. So we work on the weekends
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  Speaker 4: and after hours as well, so we focus on service
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  Speaker 4: gaps as well. Say it's not a Monday to Friday
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  Speaker 4: nine to five model. We work on weekends. We have
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  Speaker 4: a lot of identity and fitness sessions on weekends, which
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  Speaker 4: are great, but we've even involved this young person's uncles.
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  Speaker 3: We're appropriate into that as well.
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  Speaker 1: How important do you reckon that is to like to
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  Speaker 1: have that family support around you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's so important.
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  Speaker 4: And look, we're a very small team, so we can
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  Speaker 4: only do little parts of that job. We'd love to
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  Speaker 4: get to a stage where we can build our team
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  Speaker 4: or working with other services as well, so that the
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  Speaker 4: families are morph supported as well. Because we're talking in
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  Speaker 4: a generational trauma, layers upon layers, we're talking in poverty
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  Speaker 4: as well, so how does a service support a family
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  Speaker 4: in poverty as well? And that's that, and that's even
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  Speaker 4: talking about brokerage and other organizations that can come in together.
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  Speaker 4: So it really does take a whole community. Now we're
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  Speaker 4: very new, we're under a year old, so we're still
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  Speaker 4: figuring out what our model exactly looks like, what our
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  Speaker 4: collaborations look like. We're most non for profits are mission driven,
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  Speaker 4: but we're principles driven. So we are principles of culture
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  Speaker 4: and well being, strength based family units, and collaboration and accountability,
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  Speaker 4: but also being data driven is a big part of
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  Speaker 4: that too.
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  Speaker 1: Now I knows it's you know to me, it does
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  Speaker 1: sound as though the program can make a big difference.
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  Speaker 1: You see there that connection to culture is a really
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  Speaker 1: important thing. Just how important is that for some of
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  Speaker 1: these youths that have become quite disengaged and are very
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  Speaker 1: much on the wrong path. How important is that connection
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  Speaker 1: to culture and having mentors around you that can actually
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  Speaker 1: remind you how important you know, your aboriginality is and
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  Speaker 1: your culture is.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, And look, I'm sure many listeners and yourself
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  Speaker 4: would have heard. You know, when we say culture, we
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  Speaker 4: say culture and identity, and it's the same thing. And
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  Speaker 4: so it's basically looking at who you are as a
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  Speaker 4: person and really looking at you know, who you are
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  Speaker 4: as with the strengths of what you are. Unfortunately, in
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  Speaker 4: the system, you start learning a different who you are,
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  Speaker 4: and it's a really deficit based approach. Learning culture can
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  Speaker 4: look like different things to different young people, and we've
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  Speaker 4: got such a variety of young people that we work with.
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  Speaker 4: But even just connecting the country is one of probably
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  Speaker 4: the biggest elements that we utilize. And it's not just
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  Speaker 4: having fun in games, it's actually learning about your surroundings
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  Speaker 4: and respect. There's a lot of principles attached to when
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  Speaker 4: we go on country and a lot of sensory work too,
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  Speaker 4: and learning more about yourself. And this introspective learning can
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  Speaker 4: actually be utilized and transferred to other areas. That the
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  Speaker 4: importance of culture is about being present as well as
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  Speaker 4: about respect, and it's the beauty of knowing who you
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  Speaker 4: are or developing that picture of who you are in
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  Speaker 4: a positive light.
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  Speaker 1: Joy. We are running out of time, But mate, how
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  Speaker 1: do you get involved in your program? Is it something
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  Speaker 1: that you know, like if like if we've got a
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  Speaker 1: mum listening today who's having serious issues with you know,
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  Speaker 1: with a young fella for example, and she's thinking, how
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  Speaker 1: do I you know, like, how do I get in
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  Speaker 1: contact with you guys?
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  Speaker 2: Or what's the process?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah? So where because we're so tired on resources.
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  Speaker 4: We actually don't even have a website yet because we
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  Speaker 4: can't afford it at this point of time. But we've
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  Speaker 4: got an email which is info at Brother to Another
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  Speaker 4: dot org, dot au and that's generally been how we've
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  Speaker 4: got a referral form we use to have youth justice
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  Speaker 4: and families usually referred directly in but also via peer groups.
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  Speaker 4: A lot of people in the community kind of know
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  Speaker 4: us or of one of the workers, So that's sort
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  Speaker 4: of how we're referring in at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Ji. I really appreciate you coming in this morning.
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  Speaker 1: Mate. It's it's been really good for us to find
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  Speaker 1: out more about this. But I think it's pretty phenomenal that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you guys don't have that funding territory or
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  Speaker 1: federal government funding at this stage.
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  Speaker 2: It is something that.
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  Speaker 1: You're doing through philanthropic donations and it goes to show
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  Speaker 1: you that there are some really great people in the
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  Speaker 1: community like yourself right now. Who are you know who
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  Speaker 1: are doing stuff to try to make some serious change,
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  Speaker 1: And I reckon.
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  Speaker 2: That is wonderful for everybody out there listening to hear.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you so much and we're so privileged and excited
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  Speaker 4: to keep this journey gone.
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  Speaker 2: Good on you, Jai, thank you, thanks for coming in.