Jesuit Social Services chief executive Julie Edwards said the Victorian Children’s Court funded the youth diversion pilot program almost a year ago and it had been extended by another six months.

She said the program involved a number of Victorian courts, including Ararat and Stawell.

Ms Edwards said the program aimed to rehabilitate young people.

“When a young person on a first or second offence comes before the children’s court, the matter can be deferred to the diversion program by the magistrate,” she said.

“The young person is then given a plan to complete, and once they complete it, which 90 per cent of them do, they have their matter dismissed and they don’t have a criminal conviction.

“It gives the young person, who might have done one silly thing, a better start in life and better prospects for work in the future.”

Ms Edwards said the program was running for an extra six months because it had received good results. 

“The government has also decided to extend the program across the state,” she said.

Ms Edwards said Centacare run the program on behalf of the agency in the Grampians.

“The program has proven to help young people become re-engaged with school, improve their mental health and improve their relationships with their family and community,” she said.

“Young people also develop a better understanding of the consequences of their offending.”

Ms Edwards has also welcomed a royal commission into the abuse of youths in the Northern Territory corrections systems. 

It comes after footage of youths being isolated and abused at the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin were made public. 

Ms Edwards said a royal commission was needed to examine what was happening to young people in custody.

However, she said the issue wasn’t a problem in the region.

“Now the general public has become aware of the abuse young people are facing, anything short of a royal commission would not be satisfactory,” she said.

Ms Edwards said youth crime rates were better in Victoria than Northern Territory.

“Victoria has is one of the best performing states in terms of offending rates for young people, despite the sensationalism about crime rates increasing,” she said.

“We also have one of the lowest incarceration rates for young people.

“There are small numbers of young people committing serious crimes though and we do need to take it seriously and deal with it but not feed into the frenzy that we have a crime wave on our hands.”