On The Offensive

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday January 10, 2009

Kristie Kellahan

A former music teacher changed her tune when she saw young offenders were slipping between the cracks of the justice system. Kristie Kellahan reports.

Six months ago, Kristin Teece joined the Department of Juvenile Justice as a program officer with the youth offender-violent offender program. On her second day on the job, Teece feared she had made a terrible mistake. "I'd just moved my family to Sydney for this job, I didn't know anyone and I was travelling for two hours on the bus just to get to work," she says.

"Basically I freaked out and had a big cry, thinking I just wouldn't be able to do it."

Within two weeks, Teece says her perception changed as she began to enjoy the work and the "supportive environment" within the department. A month later she was convinced she had made the right decision. "It's been a massive lifestyle change but it seems to me there is a lot of encouragement to really go somewhere with this career."

Teece, 33, says she has always had a passion for working with youth. Earlier in her career, that passion led to a stint as a music teacher, where she was able to share her love of singing and performing. "I studied at the Australian Institute of Music for a year and then at the Conservatorium for four years," she explains. "I had a degree in music education, majoring in voice, and from there I went into teaching music at TAFE in Armidale."

Taking advantage of many opportunities that came her way, Teece says she enjoyed the creativity of the TAFE teaching system. In addition to leading classes, she was part of the committee of teachers that wrote the HSC entertainment examination paper. "Teaching was an excellent foundation career," she says.

After six years on the job, Teece became impatient with the slow pace of advancement offered to teachers. "It's hard when you're a young teacher to move up the ranks; you can be a teacher for years and years before you get a chance to be a head teacher."

Looking around for another opportunity, Teece says she knew she wanted to keep moving but wasn't sure what her next step would be. She was asked to take on the challenging task of running programs for youth at risk through TAFE, a "creative" role she relished. "I worked with one group of girls who were enrolled in high school but identified as at risk of dropping out before finishing year 10," she explains. "It was intense and fantastic as we worked together on dance, music and photography projects that had a lot of personal development aspects to them."

During this time Teece also taught music and performance to groups with special social needs, including a young mothers group and a class of young sex offenders who had been referred to her by the Department of Juvenile Justice. "These kids were on the outside in a way; they had been disengaged from the regular education system," she says. "As much as I love teaching really talented kids, I found that there were some hidden talents to be encouraged in these kids who were considered at risk and that was very rewarding."

Through her work with the youth offenders, Teece became aware of a role available as program officer within the Department of Juvenile Justice.

The job was a big departure from teaching; it was more policy-based and involved no face-time with young people. Sensing this would be the sort of job where she could really make a difference, Teece says she was "intrigued" and began to research everything she could find on the internet and in journals about juvenile sex offenders and juvenile justice.

"I didn't have all the requirements for the role because I'm not a psychologist but the department did take me on because of my good references and past track record of achieving," she says.

That was a little more than six months ago. Today, Teece's role involves formulating programs for counsellors to implement when working with young offenders. From this year she will be studying for a masters in criminology to broaden her knowledge.

Teece says although she misses working face-to-face with young people, she takes comfort in knowing she makes a difference.

"Young sex offenders are the people that society least wants to know about but no matter what they've done, they still have the capacity to change if they still have hope," she says.

© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald

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