Any agency that has a license agreement with Caraniche is able to deliver KickStart. To deliver the KickStart programs, facilitators employed within these agencies must complete the KickStart Facilitator Training program with Caraniche. Facilitators can also access ongoing clinical supervision with Caraniche and participate in KickStart’s Community of Practice that includes an online Facilitator Portal, access to KickStart resources, program updates and a discussion board. Clinicians may also be required to undertake refresher training to maintain their registration as a KickStart facilitator.

KickStart is an evidence-based group program with program logic drawn from the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and the Risk Needs Responsivity (RNR) model of offender treatment. Underlying the KickStart program is a set of theoretical explanations that describe substance use and behaviour change from a biopsychosocial perspective including; social learning, self-determination, biological, and offender-specific theories. By intervening in offenders’ thinking patterns, belief systems, and behaviours, KickStart aims to reduce offenders’ substance use, improve their lifestyle choices and health, and reduce criminogenic risks.

The Caraniche story began in Melbourne in 1993 when our first AOD contract was awarded to work in Victorian prisons. Since then, Caraniche grew our prison based AOD treatment to become the state-wide drug and alcohol treatment provider in Victoria’s prisons, delivering assessment, individual and group based treatment until 2023.

Caraniche also provide both forensic and voluntary services to people in the community including the KickStart suite of programs and the HiROADS Service for high risk dual diagnosis people subject to community-based sanctions.

In addition to our work with adults, Caraniche provide rehabilitation services to Victoria’s youth justice sector.