From a Juvenile Justice Centre in WA….. “If our centre didn’t have the ACMF, we wouldn’t have any music here.”
One of our teachers Dave, works at a couple of Juvenile Justice Centres in WA, and one centre in particular, which focuses on reintegrating students and giving them skills to re-enter the community, had the following to say about the importance of the ACMF Music Program:
“Music is the most important thing that our students do at our Centre. We teach them a lot of vocational courses, but music and the arts are the things that get our students interested in the world and thinking about the future and what they want to do. If our centre didn’t have the ACMF, we wouldn’t have any music here. We’d love to expand the program to include a band, and we understand that there’s not enough funding to go around, but we’d love to expand the program if possible. Our numbers have increased significantly over the last year – this is the first time in a very long time that our centre has been at capacity, so its really great that ACMF sent the new guitars over, as we have lots of new students. At the moment its the highest incarceration rate its ever been in WA. We were shocked when the number of incarcerated people went over 5000, and its now well over 6000 West Australians in prison, so our ACMF Music Program is very important for our students, particularly at the moment.”
