At risk youth
August 27th, 2009 at 10:00 am by David FarrarThe Herald reports:
The Government will fund 15,000 idle Auckland youngsters who could get up to mischief in the school holidays to go on one-week programmes this summer.
It will also fund up to 200 places for 10-day adventure camps that can be ordered by the Youth Court or a family group conference.
The plans are part of a suite of programmes announced by Prime Minister John Key yesterday in what he termed “a great mission” to ensure the potential of the next generation is released.
Chief Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft was later effusive in his praise of the Prime Minister’s move. “It is a clear signal that the Government means business to work with at-risk young people across the board.”
Some programmes announced yesterday are aimed at children from deprived homes, some at minor offenders and some at serious youth offenders.
I suspect the Government doesn’t mind this Judge’s comments on Government policy 
August 27th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Of course, what these kids really need is a clip around the ear, but that seems to be out of favour these days.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 10:07 am
“steal a car – go to adventure camp!”
i usually dont mind trying this sort of approach, but its a bit rough at the moment when the government is pissing in the faces of hard working, middle class kiwis.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 10:11 am
I know Judge Andrew Becroft personally, and can say that he’s a top bloke and has certainly broken my stereotyped view of judges.
As for the idle youths – 15,000 yikes. They will need to be sprayed for hormones on the way in… otherwise they won’t be idle for long
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 10:19 am
I wouldn’t mind going on a 10-day adventure camp – will they extend the programme to the middle-aged if I go out and paint enough grafitti?
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 10:36 am
@Colonel Masters-
Vote:And how do you prose a clip around the air would help a child from a deprived home?
August 27th, 2009 at 10:48 am
sam – i know! im sitting here dreaming about “adventure camp!” sounds awesome!
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Another waste of tax payer money from our socialist PM.
Keep it up Mr Key, the more you trend toward the left the more the people of NZ will start to see you as the gutless socialist that you are.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Hope these camps make a difference, I really hope they do. Statistically I understand in other countries they have not so much, but I hope this is not the case.
Thing is where we really need to target is the first 7 years of a kids life, that is where kids are made or broken.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 11:16 am
If I get my teenage son to tag some fences do you think Key will front for an outward Bound course for him?
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Jeff88 you have a point but the way they have not profiled and targeted the Child abusers is not a good indication that they will deal to this area as it could be done.
I think this is a good sign.
We need two tier prisons, those who we can turn and those who need to stay locked up.
Rehabilitation isn’t something we do very well and need to invest in, alongside a building program.
So pointing money at this level shows a good intention.
That said we do need to make clear where we are going as the same old same old isn’t working.
Vote:if we intend to lock people up for longer there is a cost to that and we need to resource corrections properly and support the staff.
then there is all the do gooders and teachers that need to be able to have access to those we can turn around.
preferably with teaching and training spaces alongside the cells.
August 27th, 2009 at 11:55 am
As I said at Lindsay Mitchell’s there is no funding for gifted kids’ programmes (the ones who do their schoolwork, don’t cause trouble, and will hopefully become the major wealth creators and innovators of the future) but shitheads who play up get this?
Fuck me, government priorities are fucked up. Wellington needs a massive earthquake to inject some new thinking into the bureaucracy.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Same old, same old. Celia Lashlie commented on RNZ this morning feeling cynical and weary. This is the third time that she can remember an incoming govt throwing more resources at youth. It’s just seen-to-be-doing-something stuff she says.
I say, meantime what is being done about the hundreds of pregnant teenagers going onto the sickness benefit or pitifully young mothers going on the DPB? There is a relentless inflow into the benefit system busy creating tomorrow’s crop of at-risk youth. National are not serious about really dealing with this problem until they do something about the welfare lifestyle that features, to use MSD words, ‘diseases’ of poverty, which include truancy, youth alcohol and drug abuse and violent crime.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
buggerlugs makes a good point!
How about for every dollar we spend sending a shitbag to space camp, we spend a buck on the kids that are actually doing something good!
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
The biggest thing the bright kids need is more teachers, so they can get some attention in class.
Oddly, that would probably help the troublemakers too..
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I wonder how many of the “15,000 idle Auckland youngsters” were ever disciplined [smacked or in fact any at all] prior to becoming teenagers?
And how many are the result of teenage pregnancies, or were raised by solo mothers/parents on the DPB; on sickness benefits, or long term unemployed parent[s], etc.
As Lindsay [12:29 pm] highlighted; if we don’t address the likely environment these youths come from, are we really addressing the issue at all?
This reeks of political pandering ambulance at the bottom of the cliff stuff.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Buggerlugs 11:55 am,
It does tend to have that ‘rewarding bad behaviour’ feel about it.
Probably one of the best things we could do for these [and other] youths would be to encourage responsible men to become male role models who have regular contact, and spend quality time with these youths [assuming mainly boys; something similarly appropriate for the girls]. There are organisations that both screen and link appropriate men with boys that need male input in their lives.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Repton 12:59 pm,
Or perhaps just a better standard of teacher.
Vote:Half of the idiots teaching our kids I wouldn’t trust to train my dog to fetch a stick.
Liberal idealogues filling our kids minds with their bullsh%t, or just totally incompetent and inept.
August 27th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Kris K: so what are your qualifications for assessing the skills of teachers ?
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Dumb Schmuck 4 Justice 1:25 pm,
I was a relief teacher while between engineering jobs in the late 80s. I could run rings around half of the ‘teachers’ for whom I was relieving with my eyes shut, and that was when, in general, the quality of teachers wasn’t actually too bad. Things have only got worse in the last twenty years, and this has been confirmed by many teachers I know personally.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Or perhaps just a better standard of teacher.
Half of the idiots teaching our kids I wouldn’t trust to train my dog to fetch a stick.
Liberal idealogues filling our kids minds with their bullsh%t, or just totally incompetent and inept.
Get this: A disruptive and violent kid in my son’s class has all the woolly-wooftery shit done “time out”, “see the principal”, repeated ad nauseam.
The other day he disappears from class. “Where did you go this morning?” asks my nine year old. “Mrs XXX took me and XXX (another shithead) to the swimming pool. It was cool. Tomorrow we’re going to the park.”
My son said the level of misbehaviour went up by 100% amongst the borderline shitkickers that afternoon.
Those who can’t, teach.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Dumb schmuck
Yeah what is your qualification for asking the question?
mine is parent and taxpayer.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Fantastic!
Now the thieves will be fit as hell.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Buggerlugs 1:46 pm,
In my day [where's me walking stick?] little sh%ts would get ‘six of the best’, or equivalent at primary school, and the “level of behaviour went up by 100% amongst the borderline shitkickers.”
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
At my primary school, only one boy ever got the strap. The rest of us never saw it or really knew what the feared device actually was. Fear of the unknown was sufficient to prevent misbehaviour. The removal of corporal punishment changed the number of annual strappings at that school from 1 to 0 but had a huge negative impact on behaviour.
Vote:August 27th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Camryn 4:01 pm,
This is the thing the Bradfordites will never understand; or at least will never acknowledge.
The threat of corporal punishment, whether in the school or the home, was usually more than sufficient to regulate behaviour in probably 99% of cases where children even thought about stepping out of line.
And imagine if we could put a dollar figure on the societal disruption which has resulted in the removal of corporal punishment from schools alone. And having done that, send the bill to Labour and the Greens. Of course Key and others may also have to make significant contributions as well based on performance to date.
Do people actually realise how bad kids will be in the future if we dont chuck out this Bradford Abomination?
Vote:I mean really, have they thought about it?
Hell on earth comes to mind!
August 27th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I think a lot of kids going to these summer camps are in for a big shock.
They’ll want to be dispruptive troublemakers asap.
THe first ones to stand out are going to be made examples.
Never would have happened with the feminazi’s in power.
Vote: