Getting youngsters on the straight and narrow

The recent violence between some gangs has highlighted a national problem

The Dominion Post

In the garage at the rear of the Maraeroa Marae Health Clinic in Porirua is a pole laden with coloured scarfs, mostly blue or red.

Each one represents a young person who has given up gang life in an effort to better themselves.

They have been shown a different path by Fa'amatuainu Wayne Poutoa, who founded the Streets Ahead programme to reduce gang recruitment, violence and crime.

When they finish the five-day course, armed with new self- knowledge, they hand over their colours – and move on.

The centre is a few hundred metres from where IHC caregiver Fitzgerald Risati was stabbed to death last December while out celebrating his 24th birthday.

That sort of violence that has flared up again with recent gang- related incidents in Hawke's Bay and Invercargill.

Last Saturday five people were admitted to hospital with serious injuries after Mongrel Mob members with knives, bats and a machete rampaged through a 21st party in Bridge Pa, near Hastings. There have been several other gang-related assaults in Hawke's Bay this month.

Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt called for police to have greater powers after a feud between the Mongrel Mob and Road Knights resulted in two house fires. Wanganui Mayor Michael Laws said the army should be brought in to crush gangs if necessary.

Prime Minister Helen Clark says the Government has made several moves to tackle gangs, including setting up the Organised and Financial Crime Agency, due to start next month.

Changes to the law would make gang membership an aggravating factor at sentencing, she said.

Mr Poutoa, a former gang member, reckons that, for the size and population of New Zealand, the prevalence of gangs is a serious problem.

"It's getting bad, it's getting really bad. The weapons of choice have changed, so has the level of violence – it's more frequent."

The solution is not simple; a community-driven approach is needed, he says.

Many factors contribute to gang violence, including drug and alcohol abuse, a lack of good role models and inadequate healthcare and housing.

Streets Ahead shows gang members another way.

Established in 2006, it consists of five workshops a year, taking in a total of about 200 young men and women aged about 17 to 24.

All have been referred by Child, Youth and Family or police, and 80 to 90 per cent are in youth gangs based on the Los Angeles Crips and Bloods.

Many would have progressed to more established adult gangs, Mr Poutoa says.

For five full days and nights they stay at the marae together, learning, sleeping and eating.

They learn leadership, coping mechanisms and life skills and undertake physical activities such as rock climbing, swimming and waka ama (outrigger canoeing). They also listen to talks by social workers and medical staff and gradually learn to reconnect with their cultures.

Clinic manager Missy McLean says it is a supportive, family environment, which some have never experienced before.

"Some come here and they're into drugs and alcohol and have to cope with not being allowed it here.

"Some don't make it, but that doesn't mean that the door shuts.

"It means they have to go away and think about their behaviour and come back."

Another programme that aims to give youth offenders a better future is Youth to Men –formerly U-Turn– in Hastings. Established in 2004 by former British special forces member Rory McCallum, Howie Clare and former police officer Henare OKeefe, it is a 15-week intensive fitness-based course at the Flax Rock Adventure Centre. It is now run solely by Mr McCallum.

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The course teaches youngsters social skills, builds up their fitness and puts them through adventure training such as kayaking, climbing and caving.

Mr McCallum says the boys who take part are all from gangs and have committed various crimes. Aged from 13 to 16, most have been out of school for several years and come from impoverished backgrounds.

The programme may be their last chance to change before they land in prison.

Even though they "have rap sheets as long as your arm", they are still keen to learn a new way of life, Mr McCallum says.

"It just gives them this wonderful feeling they have the ability to take charge of difficult situations, which carries over to their life situations."

More than half the boys stay out of gangs, he says. "There are some miraculous changes in these young men."

'COLOURS DON'T MATTER'

By her early teens Daryl Hata was well into a life of crime and violence.

Home invasions, assaults, burglaries, stealing cars and abusing drugs and alcohol were all in a day's work for the Porirua girl.

At 13 she was expelled from school for beating up another girl and soon after that she was recruited by the Crips.

By the age of 15 she had taken part in assaults and been a witness to knife attacks – including one in which a man's fingers were cut off.

She was hanging around Black Power, a gang she expected to advance into.

"I didn't care about anyone," she said. "I had no respect for myself, I used to get on the piss every weekend.

"When you join a gang and you know them and you become mates you feel they care more because of the things you do. If I had a fight and got beaten up my mates would come along and bash them. It made me feel they cared."

The turning point came when Daryl and her friends were arrested for having a machete.

She was sent to the Streets Ahead programme, which she completed last November.

There she learned confidence, respect, and a sense of family.

Now the bright, outgoing and well-mannered teenager is on the programme's youth committee, a role model for others.

She is undergoing further counselling and anger management, goes to the gym and is studying for truck and forklift licences, qualifications she hopes to use for a job at her brother's furniture removal company in Auckland.

"Since then it's been a big difference," she said. "I used to think going out and doing burgs [burglaries] and crime was fun.

"Wayne [Poutoa] made me see something different, he made me see colours don't matter. I wish every kid could be in it."