Get in early. Stay in their corner.

Young people do better with an adult they trust in their corner. Through The Ropes gives young people somewhere to belong, a mentor who turns up, and a reason to keep turning up themselves.

By the numbers

Young people in Australia's youth justice system.

4,147young people were under youth justice supervision on an average day in 2024-25Source: AIHW, Youth justice in Australia 2024-25
81%of them were supervised in the community, not in detentionSource: AIHW, Youth justice in Australia 2024-25
4 in 5young people in detention on an average day had not been sentencedSource: AIHW, Youth justice in Australia 2024-25: summary
38.8%of Australians aged 16 to 24 had a mental disorder in the past yearSource: ABS, National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, 2020-2022

The picture

Where support can reach.

Average cost per young person per day, 2024-25. Community supervision excludes the Northern Territory. Source: Productivity Commission, Report on Government Services 2026, Youth justice

56.7% of young people aged 10 to 16 released from sentenced supervision in 2022-23 returned within 12 months (excluding the NT). Each circle is 5%. Source: Productivity Commission, Report on Government Services 2026, Youth justice

Behind the numbers

Behind every file is a young person with a story.

Young people in the youth justice system are, first, young people. Many have lived through trauma, disrupted schooling, out-of-home care or poverty. Most are supervised in their own communities, which is exactly where a mentor and a gym can be part of everyday life.

Detention is expensive and, for most, short: four in five young people in detention on an average day are on remand, waiting for court. Each day costs $3,635. A day of community supervision costs $424.

Return rates are high. More than half of the young people released from sentenced supervision come back within a year, which is why support that continues after an order ends matters.

First Nations young people make up 56% of those under supervision. Programmes for them should be led or co-designed by community. See our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander page.

Beyond the justice system, 8% of Australians aged 15 to 24 are not in any work or study (ABS, 2025). Getting in early, before a first charge, is where prevention lives.

How Through The Ropes can help

Somewhere to belong.

A trusted adult

Mentors are matched by postcode and stay in touch beyond the gym. Consistency is the point.

Discipline without punishment

Boxing training rewards effort, respect and control. Young people earn progress, week by week.

Energy with a direction

Hard training, then a showcase in front of family and community. Pride that is earned in public.

Families and schools in the loop

We'll work with parents, carers, schools and youth workers, so the progress follows the young person home.

Potential for impact

What the evidence says.

Mentoring helps, modestly. A review of 70 studies covering more than 25,000 young people found mentoring programmes had a positive effect on behaviour, wellbeing and schooling. The authors urge everyone to be realistic: the average gain is modest, and quality and length of the relationship matter.Source: Raposa et al. (2019), The Effects of Youth Mentoring Programs: A Meta-analysis, Journal of Youth and Adolescence
Mentoring and offending. A Campbell Collaboration review of 46 studies found mentoring for at-risk young people reduced delinquency, with a small to moderate effect. Programmes varied a lot, and poorly reported ones made it hard to say exactly what works.Source: Tolan et al. (2014), Mentoring programs to affect delinquency and associated outcomes of youth at risk, Journal of Experimental Criminology
Structured sport programmes and crime. A 2023 meta-analysis found sport programmes for prevention and rehabilitation had a moderate effect on offending, and a large effect on self-esteem and wellbeing. But simply playing sport is not linked with less offending: it's the structure, mentoring and support around the sport that count.Source: Jugl, Bender and Losel (2023), Do sports programs prevent crime and reduce reoffending? Journal of Quantitative Criminology
How boxing is coached matters. Reviews of martial arts and combat sport programmes for young people report gains in self-control and wellbeing in many studies, and worse aggression in some. The difference is the coaching, the values taught and the setting, which is why our sessions put technique, respect and control first.Source: Vertonghen and Theeboom (2010), The social-psychological outcomes of martial arts practise among youth: a review, Journal of Sports Science and Medicine

Honest about what we know. Mentoring helps on average, but the gains are modest and depend on how long and how well the relationship runs. Sport on its own does not reduce offending; sport combined with mentoring and skills does better. We will measure, and we will publish what we find.

What we will measure with every cohort, and publish:

Who starts, who finishes, and why people leave early
Wellbeing and mood at week 1, week 10 and three months later, using a standard validated scale
Fitness and attendance: sessions completed out of thirty
Next steps at three and six months: work, study, training, sport, housing
School attendance or re-engagement, reported by schools and families with consent

Know a young person who needs a corner?

Parents, schools, youth workers and youth justice teams: refer them, or talk to us about a cohort.

Refer someone Talk partnership

Sources

Figures are the latest published at the time of writing (October 2026). Back to Who we help.