SPEAKERS

Anoushka Jeronimus (Co-convener), Eva Lazzaro (Policy and Advocacy Lead), and Mallika Murthy (Campaign Manager) from Smart Justice for Young People.

Topic

Smart Justice for Young People (SJ4YP) is a coalition of over fifty leading social services, health, legal, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, and youth advocacy organisations working together to create change for children and young people in contact with the criminal justice system. The coalition works together to shift political and public attitudes, advise the Government on evidence-based approaches, and to challenge policies and practices that harm young people.  The coalition backbone is led by YouthLaw, WestJustice, and the Centre for Innovative Justice. 

SJ4YP developed an action plan, titled ‘Working Together‘, which identified five of the most over-represented groups in the criminal justice system in Victoria – First Nations children and young people; Multicultural children and young people; Children who live in out-of-home residential care; 18–25-year-olds; and Girls and young women with complex needs. It found that these cohorts of young people are over-represented in police and criminal justice system contact and under-represented in the provision of support services (such as access to housing, healthcare, education and employment).

SJ4YP have been exploring pathways to change the narrative around youth crime and address the key drivers as well as intersecting systemic and structural issues that keep these five cohorts over-represented. 

About the speakers

Anoushka Jeronimus is co-convenor of Smart Justice for Young People and the Director of the Youth Law Program at WestJustice. Prior to that she worked at Victoria Legal Aid (VLA), commencing in July 2007 with the Youth Legal Service and moving into the Youth Crime Team in 2012. She successfully gained specialist accreditation in Children’s Law in 2012 and was awarded 2012 Children’s Law Award along with VLA for the work she led in relation to the Tyler Cassidy Inquest.

Mallika Murthy is the Smart Justice for Young People Campaign Manager. Mallika is a South Indian woman living on unceded Wurundjeri Country. She is a social worker who has spent the last several years working in the youth mental health sector across various roles in policy, program delivery, training, content development, and direct service provision. 

Eva Lazzaro is the Policy and Advocacy Lead at Smart Justice for Young People and a Project Officer at the Centre for Innovative Justice, working on a program of research looking at the needs and experiences of young people who interact with the criminal legal system, family violence system and other service systems. Eva has spent the last few years working in the community legal sector across various legal advocacy, policy and volunteer coordination roles. 

VTMH seminars are open to individuals, from all disciplines and working in all sectors, who are based in Australia and interested in diversity and mental health.  

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