Off the mean streets | Auckland News | Local News in Auckland

Gang life is a threat to Wesley youngsters and councilors agree - so they're fronting up with the money to keep them out of harm's way. Andrea Jutson reports

A determination to reduce gang activity has saved a youth centre in Wesley from the chop. Despite the Auckland City Council's cost-cutting crusade, the community services committee decided to allocate funds in July's budget. Mt Roskill Community Board and local councillors are behind the move, saying that the 601sq m sports and activity centre is essential in an area that has more than its fair share of gang problems. All going well, construction will begin next year, next door to Wesley Community Centre. "There are so many youths in this community, but they just don't have a place of their own," says the centre's youth worker, Luke Thomas. "There's a difference between a youth centre and a community centre, and it will be so much easier to encourage young people to use the center when it's just for them." Police youth team officer Nigel Turnbull, who is also a community board member, says gang activity in Mt Roskill and Wesley is dropping, but the centre will be a great help. He says anything that encourages young people into healthy activities is hugely important to the area, which has a high number of immigrants and youths in gangs. "The police are tired of dealing with youth gangs," he says. "People have to learn that the streets are not a playground." He says matters have improved since he arrived in the area five years ago, about the same time as the Wesley Community Centre was built. Mr Turnbull says people are no longer afraid to drive through the streets at night. The community center offers driver's licence courses, teen activities, a champions programme for intermediate schoolchildren, giving them life skills and better self-esteem. "I teach them that anything you're thrown against, you should be able to bounce back from, like a ball," says Mr Thomas. Mr Thomas was appointed by Wesley Community Trust less than a year ago to manage youth programmes at the centre, and he's already making a big difference. "The car's got some wheels; we've got some traction now," he says. He's not sure if he will be appointed to the centre when it is built, as the council may choose to put its own worker there, but he is delighted for the community. The preferred location is on the site of Owairaka Athletics and Harriers Club beside the community centre. The club would have to be rehoused at the council's expense. Preliminary budgets are $3.2 million and $220,000 to run the centre in its first year.