FIFTEEN-year-old Malakye dreams of playing in the NRL or working in a veterinarian surgery, caring for animals.
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He knows now, anything is possible, if you want it. But it’s not how life always was.
He’s been in trouble in school and had brushes with police before, but he doesn’t want to go back that way.
He’s on the right track in school in Armidale, playing sport, and now a leader for other kids at the Nanyapura boxing program at the PCYC in Armidale.
“Yeah, it’s fun, it’s unbelievable,” he said after wrapping up another session.
Malakye is one of the first to arrive every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
“I like learning more and getting to know one another … yeah, I’ve made other friends,” he said.
Nanyapura – an Anaiwan word that means ‘all of us’ – is aimed at developing disadvantages and disaffected young people in the Armidale area.
A rising wave of property crime, often fueled by drugs, put police on notice earlier this year. A large percentage of those arrested were Aboriginal youth, and police spoke with them informally to find out what’s happening. No positive role models or influences, and plenty of stories of sorrow or boredom.
Respect, self-discipline and recognition are the three corner stones of the boxing program, aiming to allow kids to thrive given the right environment and help.
And for kids like Malakye, it’s something they look forward to three mornings a week.
“I want to be one of the top ones and go down there and lead the younger ones the younger blokes,” he said.
“I wouldn’t want to see them get into trouble so I’d like to help them stay out of trouble.”
I wouldn’t want to see them get into trouble so I’d like to help them stay out of trouble.
- 15-year-old Malakye
Tyler is 13. He’s been suspended from school before but has been coming since it started.
“Yeah I think it’s good,” he said, not only to be trained in “how to box properly” but also learn.
“Because it gets them out of bed, builds respect, yeah.
“Yeah a fair bit [I think it keeps them out of trouble] because you waste all of your energy here instead of at school.”
Will Green – the Aboriginal Liaison officer with New England police – has been involved since the start.
“When we initially started we aimed for you know 15 to 20 participants,” he said.
“Our biggest number we’ve had is 86, so you know the program has grown like you wouldn’t believe.”
Once the boxing gloves are out, the sweat sesh begins, and the sore muscles follow – for some of us, for a couple of days after.
This isn’t easy, but it’s more than just a boxing session, for both the kids and the adults – whether it’s the police officers who give up their time to come or the community leaders and mentors. After the boxing, the kids are there listening to the education side of the program, whether it’s a presentation on the dangers of the drug ice, health and well-being or traditional languages.
It’s gone from strength to strength, and is now in its tenth week.
“I’m the lead mentor so what I do is wake up at 5am go round pick the kids up in the bus drop them here, come here, supervise, join in,” Pathfinders mentor Clarrie Moran said.
I’m the lead mentor so what I do is wake up at 5am go round pick the kids up in the bus drop them here, come here, supervise, join in.
- Pathfinders mentor Clarrie Moran
“Surprisingly not really hard [to attract the kids], surprisingly, once we sort of identified our leaders, the likes of Malachi, young Liam, James, they’ve helped pass the word around, people just come from everywhere, and the word is spreading.
“It has been that the attendance has risen [from schools], from the police, a bit of the crime has gone down, it’s definitely working in a few places. We now see some of our lead students now running some of the drills and what not in the program.”
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The kids are at the forefront of the program. On one of the mornings I arrive early to find the kids each setting a boxing move, whether it’s four right punches followed by a left hook, or a right jab, left jab, two slides and two uppercuts. They mix it up every week.
“We want them to be involved, to take ownership of it,” Mr Green said.
“If they know it’s their program, they will lead and take it as their own instead of someone always telling them what to do, so we often have brekky and talk about what works and what doesn’t.”
It doesn’t matter if you can’t box, you’ll learn the moves, and the rules, pretty quickly.
We did a rule session up with the kids and they set the rule up, so anybody that swears it’s a 10 push-up rule … it’s not the individual that swears, it’s everyone that gets punished. We make it as fun as possible, but they still have to work pretty hard
- New England police liaison officer Will Green
“We did a rule session up with the kids and they set the rule up, so anybody that swears it’s a 10 push-up rule … it’s not the individual that swears, it’s everyone that gets punished. We make it as fun as possible, but they still have to work pretty hard," Mr Green said.
There is a circle-session after the boxing to talk about how things are going, before everyone high-fives. Next up is the educational lesson, breakfast and then they get dropped to school.
But it’s what kids like Malakye are doing in the program that’s making a difference outside.
“He’s really stepped up in the program, he’s probably one of our main leaders in the group and we look to him if anything is sort of going on in the community with the boys that we don’t know of, he helps a lot, he’s a really good kid,” Mr Moran said.
“He’s now got a few goals that he’s set that he wants to try and achieve and I think he’ll go a long way to achieve them.”
New England Police Inspector Roger Best was one of the driving forces behind the program and said it was all about giving kids positive role models and interactions.
“We have noticed that the offending within the participants has decreased or stopped, and staff haven’t interacted in a negative capacity with certain kids for quite sometime, so it is having an impact on crime,” he said.
Some of the core officers that attend have been paired with kids, and invariably, some of the kids were resistant, but we have kids coming up with gloves to the officers now and they say ‘box with me today’.
- New England Inspector Roger Best
“Some of the core officers that attend have been paired with kids, and invariably, some of the kids were resistant, but we have kids coming up with gloves to the officers now and they say ‘box with me today’.”
It’s backed by the police and PCYC, Pathfinders, Coles, Armidale Services Club, and Juvenile Justice and the education department are on board, so too the Orala Centre.
“We’ve had reports back from local schools commenting on attendance, but also the kids’ focus and general engagement and we’ve seen changes in kids already in their behaviour within the program,” Inspector Best said, with incentives for the kids to stay on track, and involved.
“We’re on a roll with some of these kids, you know if you do 50 sessions you get your official T-shirt, you do 75 sessions you get your own boxing gloves and if you get to 100 sessions the South Sydney Rugby League Club have agreed to let us come down and attend a training session.”
Ongoing funding is a concern. They’re looking to expand the program in 2018 – but that’ll come at a cost and requires business sponsorship.
“Someone asked me the other day, how long does the program go for, and I said as long as people keep turning up, we’ll keep turning up,” Mr Green said.