Gangs a symptom of poverty spiral

Sully Paea, former Stormtrooper gang member and now Otara youth worker, acknowledges a growing gang problem in Clendon and Manurewa. Photo / NZ Listener.

When life is bleak, says youth worker Alex Smith, joining a gang is attractive. And life in parts of Manurewa and Clendon is decidedly bleak.

"The issue is bigger than just the colours," said Tania Ratana, a whanau support worker at Roscommon School who also chairs the board at nearby Weymouth Intermediate.

"It's alcohol, drugs, unemployment - it's just a never-ending, downward-spiralling environment. And when people do get on their feet, they move. Clendon statistically is worse than Otara and Mangere."

Otara youth worker Sully Paea said: "Clendon is the Otara now. They have bigger issues in 'Rewa now than we have."

The Ministry of Social Development implicitly agrees.

It has reshuffled its funding for youth workers from January 1 to take two workers out of Otara and put one extra person into Manurewa and Clendon.

Manurewa and Clendon will now have eight funded workers, with seven each in Otara and Mangere, three in Papakura, 2.5 in Otahuhu, 1.5 each in Papatoetoe and Massey, one each in Mt Roskill and Avondale/New Lynn and half a fulltime worker in Ranui.

The median annual income in Clendon North is $22,200. It's $21,000 in Clendon South - still higher than parts of Otara and Mangere which can be as low as $14,000.

But in most parts of Clendon and Manurewa, almost half of all families with children now have only one parent at home - a higher proportion of sole parents than anywhere else in South Auckland, except parts of neighbouring Takanini and Papakura.

And, partly as a result, most parents are on benefits.

"I think from poverty breeds the gang," Ms Ratana said. "You get down to your last $10, you want to forget your troubles, so you go and spend it on alcohol.

"A lot of kids are getting jumped. Some of it is about whether you join this crew or that crew. It's silly things like what colour you're wearing, like the boy who was beaten because of his yellow T-shirt."

Mr Smith, who manages the Manurewa Police's youth development team and II Much Trust, said: "Life is quite bleak. You can't really isolate just the offender or the parents, you have to deal with families across the board."

Nga Wahine Atawhai Matukutureia (the Maori Women's Welfare League), which has the youth work contract for the area, started with the young people themselves, running programmes in the area's three intermediate schools and in some of the primary schools and high schools.

At Weymouth Intermediate it runs run daily programmes on leadership, health, relationship building, confidence and self-esteem.

"It's supporting the young people to step up and be the leaders," said youth worker Warren Manuel. "We talk about role-modelling for our own young men. One of the issues is the lack of male role models in our community."

Weymouth Intermediate counsellor Tania Bell said that when she started at the school three years ago she tried to tackle youth gangs by running anger-management classes. But they didn't work.

"The boys wouldn't sit still after five minutes. They were totally bored with the whole thing.

"After six or seven weeks, when I finally decided it wasn't working, I asked them what they needed. What they wanted was more sports, more outdoor stuff, and they wanted to hear real-life experiences of how to change their lives."

So she brought in youth workers from Nga Wahine Atawhai and II Much Trust. All Black captain Richie McCaw came to the school for Red Sox Day.

"The youth workers do a lot of arts and crafts, a lot of sports, a lot of dancing," Ms Bell said. "Ultimately we want to plant the seed that they will enjoy school."

The school has also started a parent-teacher association. The parents have asked for adult literacy classes so they can help their children with their homework.

Police youth workers Malesala and Akarei Malesala have started a Samoan youth programme including literacy and numeracy alongside sports, with a strong Samoan cultural component aimed at giving youngsters a sense of identity.

Mereana Te Pere of Nga Wahine Atawhai has plans for a similar Manurewa young Maori leaders group.

Ms Ratana, whose children have gone through their whole school careers in Maori-immersion units, said: "It's changing the mentality, turning our kids into believing they can fulfil their dreams.

"Gangs are not the problem. It's the stuff that makes them - it's poverty, poor education, alcohol, drugs, family relations, isolation."

The system doesn't help. One part-time school staffer with three children has quit since the Government cut subsidies for early childhood centres with qualified staff, pushing up childcare fees to the point where work wasn't worth it.

Ms Ratana has checked whether she'd be better to go back on the domestic purposes benefit.

"But I'm still fighting the battle to try to keep going."

WHERE'S DAD?
Sole parent families as a percentage of families with children, 2006:

Clendon North - 47.1pc

Clendon South - 42.8pc

Weymouth East - 42.1pc

Weymouth West - 39.4pc

Burbank - 45.9pc

Homai West - 49.3pc

Rowandale - 48.5pc

Homai East - 42.2pc

Hill Park - 26.7pc

Manurewa Central - 40.7pc

Manurewa East - 44.2pc

Randwick Park - 36.9pc

Leabank - 40.9pc

Beaumont - 46.5pc

Wattle Farm - 28.2pc

Auckland average - 29.0pc

NZ average - 30.2pc

- Source: 2006 Census