KEY POINTS:
Olympic gold medallist John Walker has launched a new initiative to get South Auckland youngsters off the streets and on to a sports field.
Mr Walker, who is a Manukau City councillor, won the 1500m gold at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and broke three world records.
Find Your Field of Dreams - a project looking to get "every kid" in the Manukau area active and involved in sport - was launched last night at the TelstraClear Pacific Events Centre.
Mr Walker, who grew up in Manurewa, sees a need for kids to get off the streets and to get a chance to engage with other children, through sport.
"There's too many bored kids out there ... Some of these kids have never been to a football field," he said.
The project involves schools in the Manukau area giving free learn-to-swim programmes for all Year 3 pupils, free after-school sports programmes, working with sports clubs and providing recreational activities and night-time sports at local parks.
Mr Walker acknowledged high obesity rates among children due to the lack of exercise, as well as the negative stereotypes associated with South Auckland.
He said many children just needed a positive role model to look up to, to change those stereotypes. "There's still a lot of Valerie Vilis out there.
"They've tried other ways of getting kids off the streets, but it hasn't worked. This, sport, is another avenue."
Mr Walker, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, said the "Dreams" project was unique to Manukau, but he hoped the initiative could be taken up by other cities.
"Every kid has a dream. This is just a tap on the shoulder for them to go for it. It's a long-term project which is going to snowball and grow and grow.
"Not many kids have an opportunity to play sport. Here's an opportunity," Mr Walker said.
The swim programme will involve up to 60 primary schools and more than 6000 pupils each year.
Leading sports stars including David Tua, Ruben Wiki and Frank Bunce turned out last night, where it was acknowledged that many top sportspeople are from Manukau.
Mayor Len Brown said: "We need to generate benefits for our community from having these role models living among us."
The Lion Foundation has pledged $1 million a year for three years and Progressive Foods $500,000 a year for three years for the initiative.
