NORKEM Park SAPS, together with its youth desk and the department of community safety launched a new youth project at Hoërskool Jeugland.
Principals from 10 different schools and Norkem Park SAPS came together to launch the project which is meant to get today’s youth actively involved in serving their community and stay away from crime.
The principals of Laerskool Birchleigh, Birch Acres Primary, Birchleigh High School, Hoërskool Jeugland, Laerskool Van Riebeeck Park, West Side Primary School, Mooifontein Primary School, Jeugpark Primary School, Norkempark Primary School and NorkemPark High School were present to receive their suggestion boxes.
The police gave each school a suggestion box in which learners can put suggestions. These suggestions can include activities to help keep the youth away from crime, as well as questions about crime and other things they would like to know about.
Lt Col Riccardo Ruggeri from Norkem Park SAPS, who started this initiative, said if learners were curious about something, they could put a query in the box. This will go a long way to identifying the youth’s needs and getting different role players to assist.
Ruggeri said this was the foundation on which a new relationship between the youth and police would be built.
With this project they are not just trying to keep the youth away from crime but also become actively involved in each other’s lives, striving for a safer, more constructive community.
Chairman of Norkem Park SAPS Youth Desk, Boitumelo Mthembu, said what they wanted was to identify activities in which the youth could become involved in.
Through these activities the youth should not just be distracted from crime but also be helped to come into a mind set where crime will be something they do not even consider. Mtembu said the youth and police should be able to talk to each other and find long term solutions to their problems.
The suggestion boxes will come in handy in this regard. As adults, the police might not be able to fully comprehend what these youths need to be active in a productive way, but by reading the suggestions, the police will be able to point them in the right direction.
Ruggeri encourages all youths with ideas on how to promote this way of being active and staying away from crime, to contact him on 082-461-0686 or visit Norkem Park Police Station
