Galaxy in Sunshine

galaxy1a.jpg
Image created by youth involved
with The Salvation Army Galaxy Project
 

The Galaxy Project is a Salvation Army (Crossroads) project in its third and final year of funding under the Commonwealth Community Partnerships Initiative.

Based in the Western Metropolitan Region of Melbourne, the Galaxy Project aims to prevent and/or reduce the harms associated with drug use by young people. One of the programmes that has been initiated within the Galaxy Project is the Sunshine Chroming Awareness Program.

The specific aims of the Program are to:

  • Form a group with representatives from local community agencies and traders to develop an action strategy/pilot programme to address chroming issues in the Sunshine shopping areas; and
     
  • Document a best practice model for other communities to use when dealing with chroming and other commonly misused substances in their local areas.

The Sunshine Chroming Awareness Program draw together the key concepts of the Federal government’s community-based partnership strategy. Throughout the course of the Chroming
Awareness Program, active participants have included representatives from:

This article is an extract of the "Inquiry into the Inhalation of Volatile Substances" discussion paper (January 2002) prepared by the Parliament of Victoria Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee

  • Sunshine Police
  • Sunshine Youth Housing
  • Sunshine Traders
  • Westcare alcohol and other drugs programme
  • Good Shepherd Youth and Family services
  • Westcare Residential Services
  • Youth Outreach Team
  • IMYOS (Mental Health Agency)
  • Rotary Club
  • Department of Education,Employment and Training
  • Brimbank City Council
  • Smorgon Family
  • Open Family

Reducing availability of chrome paints

These representatives have worked to address chroming-related issues in the local community. The most pressing problem identified was the need to reduce the accessibility of chrome paint.

Representatives of the Chroming Awareness Program successfully established cooperative relationships with local traders. The traders were regularly involved in discussions at the Program’s forums. These forums were seen as integral to the Program’s success. They provided an opportunity for the expression and integration of wide-ranging views. Such views were seen as vital to the development of a ‘whole-of-community ’approach.

In July 2000 the Program reported major success in changing the paint-selling practices of several local traders. One of the most successful avenues used in creating this change was the sending of letters to the head offices of larger traders raising concerns and requesting action at local level. Of concern, however, is the information the Committee has received from representatives of the Galaxy Project that some of the momentum for maintaining this approach may be at risk.

Alleviating youth boredom

The Galaxy Project has also undertaken data collection surveys to better understand the motivations behind ‘chroming’. These surveys identified a number of underlying factors that were impacting on the use of chrome paint. Boredom among local youths was identified as the primary contributing factor. As a result, the Programme sought to redirect its focus to the development of affordable and accessible leisure activities for youth in the Sunshine area.

The Galaxy Project has also mapped the areas of Sunshine in which chroming is either known or thought to take place. Survey data identified sites of chroming activity, such as the Sunshine Railway Station. Identifying this site enabled Project representatives to make contact with the relevant transport operators and to develop a working relationship as a means of minimising chroming activity in the vicinity.

Acting upon information compiled through the survey, the Sunshine Chroming Awareness Program has identified a further number of places where chroming takes place. This information is then used to employ preventative measures such as outreach teams and allow local authorities to act to deter such activity becoming established in known haunts.

Having sought to address issues of supply reduction in its initial stages, the next phase
of the Sunshine Chroming Awareness Program aimed to address the needs of young people and develop positive community strategies to support them.

Sunshine models

The models developed by the Sunshine Chroming Awareness Program can be viewed by clicking on the following links: