THERE could scarcely be a more potent symbol of the city’s youth crime crisis than the ubiquitous image of a burned-out car in a local park.
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The cost of youth crime is writ large in the pages of this newspaper with alarming regularity. The financial cost – loss of property, higher insurance premiums, the cost of cleaning up, and the emotional cost – anger, loss of faith in the community, creeping fear. And while we beat our chests about the temerity of teenage thieves, we rarely have a meaningful dialogue about how we’ve found ourselves at this historic flashpoint.
Politicians and the media are often more interested in a law and order race to the bottom than substantive debate.
The truth is, solving our youth crime wave presents a complex matrix. But at least part of the puzzle revolves around re-engaging the disengaged. Organisations like PCYC are at the frontline of that battle.
It stands to reason that a strong PCYC, with the support of the dozens of local auxiliary youth services, will help steer some at-risk teens away from a life of offending.
The current PCYC in Gurwood Street is too old, too small and simply not up to the task. A proposed new PCYC at the old South Wagga Bowling Club site would be a 24-carat asset for the city. The state’s PCYC boss has billed it as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the youth of Wagga” – and he may well be right.
It’s been a long and painful labour but when it finally arrives, the $14 million new PCYC development at Bolton Park will be an ornament to Wagga. It will place us at the vanguard of youth engagement in the state and provide enduring benefits for the whole city.
By proposing a joint venture with council, PCYC has put the issue at risk of being suffocated in bureaucratic red tape and plagued by political delays. But engaging marginalised youth is too important to be mired in politics.
Council must be responsible with how it spends ratepayer dollars and ensure a dividend for money spent. But a rigorous cost-benefit study, currently being compiled by PCYC, will quantify just how valuable an effective PCYC can be. When that study is done, councillors must heed its findings, stump up the money and bring this worthwhile asset to life.
