'I was a victim of a home invasion. It changed the course of my life.'

When Perri Conti and her husband woke on Easter Sunday two years ago, they noticed the front door was already open. 

"My car was gone," Perri says. "Everything had been thrown out on the streets."

Perri had always been crime conscious, and usually hid her keys before going to bed. This particular evening though, she'd been tired and had fallen asleep on the couch, staggering off to bed in the early hours of the morning — and leaving her keys on the side table.

"Oh God, I was so angry," says Perri, despite believing that it was "only a matter of time" before her home was broken into. 

"There were over 1,400 cars stolen that year," she says. "I kept saying to people, 'it will happen to you, it's just a matter of when.'"

Now that it had happened to her, Perri was furious, and like many Australians, she wanted more punitive action taken to tackle youth crime. 

"I was like, 'lock them up, throw away the key'," she says. "I was like a witch on a broomstick. I was so angry, (I felt like) they don't deserve to walk here and all that."

Then she met an Indigenous woman with more than 35 years experience working in child safety, who changed everything.

"She started educating me about what these kids need, what they don't get, and my whole outlook changed," Perri says. 

"I thought, 'I've got to help these kids'."

And so she did, immersing herself into the community to determine why these kids commit crimes, so she could her part to help them. 

"It's just a cycle. So they get locked up, they come out with no support, and they start again."

Perri says when youths are released from detention, they don't receive adequate support – including guidance on how to access Centrelink, or find work. 

"How do you give a job to a kid that can't read and write, and has no education?

"They're the most beautiful kids. I just love them to death,"

Perri says many children have nowhere to go, and are left wandering the streets through the nights, which is when most crime takes place. 

"They're the most beautiful kids."

Using her own money to put down a deposit, Perri borrowed money from the bank to purchase a share house for children without homes. 

"So they have their own room, but they share the bathrooms, the kitchen and the TV room," she says. 

Perri says the reason she spends her time and money on these kids is simple - they're worth saving. 

"They're the most beautiful kids. I just love them to death."

But there were only so many kids Perri could help via a share house, she she had another idea.

"I decided we needed a hub where these kids could come. We could teach them how to cook, how to do independent living programs, get them a job, an apprenticeship. 

"We could take a group to a building site or to have mental health assessments, and we can remind them, they can do anything as long as they put in the hard yards."

So, she went to the bank, borrowed the money and purchased a building she hopes will eventually become a youth support hub. 

Walking the streets. 

To find out exactly what these children need, and whether they'd make use of a community hub, Perri teamed up with Shane Cuthbert, who was once a youth criminal himself. Shane is now a law graduate and psychology student, a youth justice and anti-domestic violence advocate, and is running as an independent in the 2024 Cairns state election.

The pair took to the streets every night for months, to spend time with the young people committing the crimes, to try to get to the heart of the issue. 

"We went out with packets of chips and lollies just having a chat, introducing ourselves and asking the kids 'what do you need' and 'if Perri opens a place where you can go at night would you'? and the answer was always a very enthusiastic 'yes'," says Shane. 

"Now the kids run up to us and ask 'when is it opening?'."

According to Shane, the current system is failing young people. 

"I understand consequences for actions but I also advocate for prevention and it's time we look at the systems and policies currently in place," he says. 

"I have been advocating for a 24 hour youth centre for about five years and I'm incredibly grateful to, and proud of Perri for taking her own money and investing in this hub. 

"Crime here peaks between 12am and 2am yet, there are no services beyond 11PM, what alternatives do the kids have?"

Having spoken to the most at-risk, disadvantaged and criminalised kids about the hub and hearing their enthusiasm for it, Shane believes it will have a "profound impact". 

'It can be so easily fixed.'

So far, Perri has invested more than $100,000 of her own money into renovating the hub. 

But, she says, it's worth it to save the futures of young people who most Australians are happy to leave behind. 

"They come up to us late at night, but it's really hard to do anything for them because we don't have that base," she says. 

Perri says residential housing isn't working, with many children within in care left to walk the streets. 

"They're in town at midnight, smoking marijuana, chroming, stealing," says Perri, who believes drugs plays a huge role in youth crime," she says.

"Behind every child, you will find an adult. I can guarantee you that," she says. "Adults provide the marijuana for free until the kids are hooked. That's when they start wanting the money, and pushing kids towards crime."

Despite an increasing national focus on putting an end to youth crime, Perri says, detention isn't the answer. 

"It can be so easily fixed," she says.

"We need rural educational learning centres, we don't need detentions. We need to get their education levels back up. We can provide animal therapy, give the kids a sense of belonging."

More importantly though, says Perri, is providing ongoing support in relation to education and/or employment once they are released, to prevent reoffending. 

Shane agrees, tougher sentences aren't the answer. 

"We have seen a 'tough on crime' campaign win an election in the NT and I am afraid the same will happen here in Queensland. Afraid because I know that the 'tough on crime' approach borrowed from the US does not work."

Feature image: Supplied.