Getting high, stealing a car, then speeding through the streets at 100km/h might seem unfathomably stupid. But working at the Youth Development Foundation, I’ve come to understand why some kids might think this is a good idea…
If you don’t think anyone cares about you, you don’t care about the consequences of your actions.
Now, before you write me off as some bleeding-heart softie, let me say this: I believe teens are old enough to account for their own actions.
"If you don’t think anyone cares about you, you don’t care about the consequences of your actions."
If they dis the government, dis the police, dis anyone who tries to tell them what they’re doing is no one else’s fault but their own, you can bet I'll tell them to grow the hell up.
But I also want to say this: to all the grandstanding pollies and shock jocks blowing their dog whistles – “No second chances!”, “They’re just a bunch of attention seekers!”, “Zero tolerance is the only way”– get off your high horse, you have no idea.
These kids aren’t making considered choices. They don’t read about your policy announcements for curbing juvenile delinquency and think ‘Hmm, I’d better think twice’.
When a kid commits a serious offence, it’s a call for help. And the first thing we should do is listen.
Watch the full story in the video player at the top of the page.
For some of these kids, when they’re hauled up in a police interrogation it might be the first time in their life they’ve had an adult listen to them. How sad is that?
At the Youth Development Foundation, we’re the frontline. We have kids come in kicking and screaming. They’ll swear their heads off, call you every name under the sun, the works. When I tell my friends what it’s like, they ask, “Why on earth would you want to help someone like that?”
My answer is always the same. When you hear their stories and what they’ve been through, all you want to do is hold them and tell them it’s going to be alright. And that’s all they really want. But they don’t know that.
Don’t get me wrong, a good cry and a hug doesn’t fix everything. It takes a lot of work and serious resources – and there’s never enough – but the cost of doing anything less is deadly. A kid behind the wheel of a stolen car could kill someone.
"It takes a lot of work and serious resources – and there’s never enough – but the cost of doing anything less is deadly."
Let me tell you about one young man who came to us in 2014. He was homeless, drug and alcohol addicted, never had a job… Oh and he had 150 criminal charges against his name. But we didn’t lump him in the too-hard basket. We found him temporary accommodation and a counsellor to help him kick those addictions.
Then, in 2016, he moved in with my family. He wasn’t immediately grateful, at least he didn’t behave like that. But when he realised he could trust us, that we truly accepted him as part of the family, it was like flicking a switch. Don’t get me wrong, he’s no angel, but he’s no longer addicted to drugs and he’s not actively hurting people every day.
If we could set this kid on the right path, then no child is a lost cause.
It’s not a “generation gone off the rails” as the headlines might tell you. We just need to open our eyes and see the kids behind the crimes – because everyone has their own story.
