Following a spate of vandalism around Wauchope town centre and over $10,000 in damages to the toilet block at Elizabeth Park (now locked until further notice), community discussion around youth has intensified with calls for increased police patrols and greater punishment for anti-social behaviour. Others feel the answer is for the Wauchope community to engage more with our young people and create more things for young people to do.
TIP Listen to the podcast entry above to hear from the young people themselves. Click to play
For most young people in Wauchope, things are looking pretty great for the summer ahead. Wauchope has a newly renovated public swimming pool rated by Latrelle Donovan(13), Jeremy Small(13) and Donovan Roberts(13) as a great place to go for a swim and hang out with friends. There is also a new skate park which Abe McDonald, Josh Williams, Reece Anderson, Tylee Donovan, Coby Casey, Kyle Luke, Peter Terp, Cassie Dowse, Claudia McCallum, Jack Porter and Jack Kidd all agree is pretty sweet with some of the best ramps around... and let’s not forget the structured sports on offer and the ever present Hastings River for more fun.
While there is plenty to do during the day and in fine weather, once night (or rain) falls, the options for young people drop off rather quickly. In fact, there is only one evening show for kids in town but luckily it’s a good one.
The ‘Friday Night Youth Group’ was originally funded as a 12 month pilot by Port Macquarie Hastings Council. Five years on, it’s still run by Rachel Rhodes, a qualified youth worker and the program gives kids a much needed safe place to hang out on Friday nights. After the pilot ended, the Wauchope Uniting Church offered Rachel a more permanent venue along with much needed volunteers.
‘The Uniting Church said we’ll give you a free venue if you are willing to keep running it… but it’s not Church based at all’ explains Rachel.
The program provides a safe environment for school aged children and young people from 6pm to 8pm with a range of activities from arts and crafts to cultural activities such as dance and music. This is followed by a free meal and the older kids (high school age and up) then head down to the Wauchope stadium to play indoor soccer or basketball.
‘I have a core group of volunteers who help out each week plus an informal partnership with Redymob who usually come out once a month and do a workshop with the kids and then play basketball’ says Rachel.
Rachel feels the big challenge for Wauchope is for the community to engage young people in the 17, 18, 19 age bracket who have outgrown Youth Group but still don’t have a place of their own.
These kids have come of age but many still don’t have a job, don’t have a clear vision for their future and don’t have a great relationship with the community. People are scared of these kids, they see them travelling in a group and cross the street to avoid them. Small wonder then that these kids are acting out with anti-social behaviour.
These kids are in desperate need of some mentoring and inspiration from respected role models and they also need a safe space where they can ‘hang out’ yet remain connected with the community. Finding an out of hours space for young people throws up a surprising number of challenges (not insurmountable) but connecting kids is easy.
Now that the NBN is in town, creating a Public WiFi hotspot in Wauchope is both accessible and affordable. The internet is not all streaming audio and Youtube videos. It provides a way for young and old to learn, to connect with friends, to search for jobs, upload images and create stories. The internet is our link to each other via social media and it’s a way to be recognised in the community.
Latrelle Donovan who attends Friday Night Youth Group says ‘Having WiFi around here would be pretty cool. Talk to your old mates, have a good chat, make new friends’.
Jack Kid likes the idea of being able to upload images from the skate part to Instagram and maybe catch the eye of a sponsor to subsidise the cost of scooter parts. You gotta love the way these kids think.
A WiFi Hotspot would not only serve the youth of Wauchope, it would be a boon for the entire community. A centralised service can be beamed to multiple locations around Wauchope and adjusted to be available at different times.
Public WiFi in Bain Park would mean easy access to merchant facilities for stall holders during various events in the park. It would also be of service to visiting RV and motorcycle tourists who may have limited connectivity while on the road. For those who agree people tend to behave best when they know they are being observed, a high speed WiFi backbone in Wauchope would facilitate the monitoring of our public spaces with cameras.
High speed public WiFi at Andrews Park (where the skate park is) would also give sporting groups the coverage they need to connect and share during game play and of course the kids would have access from the skate park too.
Did you know there are hundreds of jobs which can be done with a simple internet connection? From programming to research, writing, project management, the list is large and impressive and brings a wealth of careers to Wauchope youth AND the greater community as well.
Should Wauchope have a high speed public WiFi? Join the discussion now on Facebook.
