Transition to Success program evaluation

Transition to Success (T2S) is a program delivered by Youth Justice in Queensland. It's mission is to change the story for young people, the community and our organisation.

T2S uses a vocational training and therapeutic service model. It is delivered in a community setting to young people aged 15–17 who are involved in the youth justice system or are assessed as being at-risk of entering.

Youth Justice works with the local community to deliver T2S, including:

  • other agencies
  • local businesses
  • community organisations
  • individuals.

Evaluating T2S

We commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to conduct an outcome evaluation that looked at the effectiveness of T2S in improving outcomes for young people.

In November 2018, the following documents were published:

Evaluation found that:

  • T2S graduates are less likely to reoffend after completing the program
  • T2S graduates spent less time in custody per month after completing the program
  • T2S leads to further engagement with education, employment and training, or a job active provider with 95% of young people transitioning into one of these paths or undertaking another T2S course.
  • A cost benefit analysis of T2S showed that every $1 spent on the program resulted in $2.13 of benefits. These benefits included avoided costs to government and society associated with reductions in reoffending (e.g. avoided costs of crime, custody and supervision).

Deloitte also undertook further analysis of Transition to Success to understand whether the results above stayed the same over a longer 12 month period (as opposed to 6 months).

T2S outcomes

  • Since the pilot program in 2015, more than 400 young people have graduated with certificates.
  • 67% of all T2S participants who completed a course did not offend or reoffend within 12 months of completing their course.
  • 42% of T2S participants with a prior offending history who completed a course did not reoffend within 12 months of completing their course.
  • 41% of participants with a prior offending history who completed T2S saw a substantial decrease in their offending magnitude.
  • In the 12 months prior to participating in the program, T2S participants spent an average of 1.8 nights in custody per month. This reduced to 1.1 nights in custody per month in the 12 months following completion of T2S.