‘A lot of these young people are actually hurting too’, Hamilton youth group manager says

Zeal tries to help keep young people busy. Photo / 123rf, RNZ

By RNZ

A Hamilton youth organisation manager says more measures need to be put in place to help troubled young people rather than just having an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

There has been a spate of crimes in Waikato and four young people have so far been arrested after three burglaries, a home invasion, a car theft and shots fired at police early on Monday morning.

Another six young people are being tracked down in connection to the offences, and the mayor of Waipā has sped up plans to install security cameras in some town centres.

Manager of Zeal’s Hamilton branch, Tony O’Rourke, said there were a number of causes for the increased youth crime, but one was young people not having a lot to do.

The youth organisation created a safe place for young people, he said.

“We try and create a place of belonging, a place of safety where young people can come and be themselves, and get positive youth development around that.”

O’Rourke said he had just moved to Hamilton from Auckland and had found Waikato’s youth sector amazing.

“I think there are some great things around, it’s just about us and the youth sector really getting seen and making young people aware that there is something out there for them.”

Waipā mayor Susan O’Regan has described the perpetrators of recent crimes as “children of the meth generation”, but O’Rourke said that was an assumption.

“We can’t just give those kinds of reasons and say that young people are the problem that we need to fix but instead I feel like we should be trying to find ways that are more preventative.”

O’Rourke acknowledged that some awful things had been happening, but said the challenge was to think about what the community was doing to try and help these young people.

“All you need to do is look on the Facebook comments of people complaining about every young person that’s going through this stuff without realising that actually, I believe a lot of these young people are hurting too, and what can we do to get in front of them and get some good mentors around them.”

There were always a limited amount of resources and manpower available for youth organisations and finding sufficient funding was a constant battle, he said.

“In the youth sector we’re always fighting to prove ways that we can deliver programmes and sometimes we miss out on funding because we can’t prove it in a way that lets the funders believe we can actually do some good for these young people.”

There was not a one-size-fits-all way to address youth offending, he said.

For some going to rehabilitation and putting themselves in a new space away from their old friends could be good, but others may do better by getting involved in programmes in their community and giving them options to give back, O’Rourke added.

-RNZ