Our work

Functional Family Therapy – Youth Justice (FFT-YJ)

Functional Family Therapy – Youth Justice works with young people and their family or kin, focusing on keeping young people out of the youth justice system to create a safer and more inclusive community.

Delivered in partnership with Yerrabi in the ACT, Functional Family Therapy – Youth Justice (FFT-YJ) is a whole family approach to youth justice aimed at reducing reoffending in young people. FFT-YJ will address the underlying reasons why a young person is offending and focus on reducing those behaviours by working with the whole family.

Who are we supporting with Functional Family Therapy – Youth Justice?

The aim of FFT-YJ is to keep children and young people in their existing homes or foster care placements. Young people learn to take a strength-based approach to improve communication, work through conflict with their family, improve engagement in their local community, and see a reduction in other services involved in their lives

How is the service delivered?

The program involves a series of therapy sessions that require all members of the household to participate. The sessions are also extended to family/kin who are close to the child or young person, as they can often benefit from the therapy and enhance overall family outcomes.

The therapy sessions are based around five separate stages, all designed to build trust, motivate and develop the family as a whole. It is about understanding what patterns drive problem behaviours, planning how to change these behaviours, and then learning effective communication skills, approaches to coping with negative moods and managing urges.