The Riverland Regional Sports and Innovation Stadium provided a great venue for the fourth Shaping Corrections Regional Community forum in Berri.

The event, was the most successful forum to date with approximately 87 people from various areas of the local community including council, local businesses, education and training organisations, accommodation and housing providers, Aboriginal organisations, and sporting and service clubs in attendance.

Strengthening collaboration with external stakeholders, partners and the community (particularly in regional areas) was a key idea explored at the Shaping Corrections Planning Day in April 2016.

The Riverland event follows Shaping Corrections community forums held in Port Lincoln (October 2017), Murray Bridge (May 2017) and Port Augusta (October 2016)  

The forum was an opportunity to promote the work of DCS, engage the local community in collaborative efforts to reduce reoffending and also identify opportunities for expanding industries / prisoner and offenders' employment opportunities in the local area.

Attendees then had the opportunity to wander around and check out the various stalls and chat to DCS staff. Areas of DCS represented on the stalls included:

Cadell Training Centre Prison industries had some of their fantastic produce on display which included their olive oil, oranges and milk. Community Corrections also had some of their electronic monitoring equipment on display.

Prison Industries from Mobilong, Port Augusta, Port Lincoln and and the Adelaide Pre-Release Centre/Adelaide Women's Prison were also represented

A light lunch was also provided courtesy of CTC offenders who are undertaking trained in Cert II - Kitchen operations.

The afternoon provided the opportunity for round table discussion facilities lead by local leaders and central office staff

Each table had approximately 45 minutes to discuss the following questions:

  1. How can the local community partner with DCS to achieve better outcomes?
  2. What can we do together to reduce re-offending and have a safer community?

All in all it was a fantastic day with many great connections with the local community made.