Youth Affairs Minister Jenny Mikakos has confirmed the Andrews government may soon overhaul a sentencing option that allows some young adults aged up to 21 to be sent to juvenile detention in order to help their rehabilitation prospects.

Advocates fear such a move could result in the dismantling of Victoria's unique "dual-track" system, which has been in place for decades.

But Ms Mikakos said: "We have seen increasingly in recent years magistrates sending young offenders who have been engaged in very violent offences to a youth justice facility. So we need to examine the suitability of those types of offenders being eligible for the dual-track system."

In a bid to prevent crime more broadly, the minister will also announce new plans on Saturday for strike teams of youth workers to help South Sudanese teens and other "over-represented" groups to avoid becoming trapped in a cycle of offending.

Under the $4 million strategy, eight organisations will get government grants to help up to 100 vulnerable young people in their communities, largely in areas of high disadvantage, such as Geelong, Dandenong and Wyndham.

Kot Monoah, chairman of the South Sudanese Community Association of Victoria, said his group's funding would be used to hire youth workers and mentors who would "empower our young people to find employment".

Other recipients include the Islamic Council of Victoria, which will provide programs to help Muslim youths overcome social, economic and community barriers; and the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency Co-operative, which will give Indigenous youths more access to schools and leadership opportunities.

Ms Mikakos said that while public attention had largely been focused on the challenges faced at the "pointy end" of the youth justice system – whereby offenders are on remand or already sentenced – "prevention is better than the cure".

"This is about engaging young people who are at risk of coming into contact with the criminal justice system to stay in school, to engage in training, to find a job, or to get involved in sport and other activities as a way of mitigating the risks of getting involved with the police and criminal activities," she said.

The new grants are also part of a broader diversion strategy announced last year, which included a new Children's Court program allowing youths to avoid conviction if they accept responsibility for their behaviour and undertake tasks such as anger management classes or drug and alcohol courses.

But diversion programs only cater for low level crimes – not the kind of violent, hardcore offending that has become the subject of heightened community concern in recent months.

Those more serious crimes, coupled with the recent spate of riots at Parkville and Malmsbury, have prompted the government to take a much tougher approach, including detaining children in a temporary youth justice unit at Barwon's adult jail.

Youths are likely to remain at Barwon until Parkville is fortified, possibly around the middle of the year. However, putting more young offenders into adult jails by scrapping the dual-track system could prove contentious for the government.

Under the system, some offenders up to the age of 21 can serve time in youth detention if the court is convinced they have reasonable prospects of rehabilitation, and are too impressionable or immature to be in an adult prison.