An after school refuge when there’s no home to go to
The four walls of an emergency motel room and a concrete car park are not conducive to children having fun.
It’s that stark realisation that’s prompted a New Zealand first after school programme to bring some normalcy to the lives of kids on Hamilton’s emergency housing strip.
Constable and youth aid officer Sarah Young and her colleague Constable Kalym Davies were among those dealing with the street disorder and shoplifting that was the result of bored youth with nowhere better to be.
Te Huarahi Hou - new pathways programme - was the result.
“The kids were not really doing anything positive while they're in the one room at a hotel, and Ulster St being a really busy street, we wanted to make sure that they were having a safe place to go.”
The programme is the first and only one of its kind in the country. It’s funded by the Ministry of Social Development, hosted at Whitiora School and run by Youthtown.
It gives the 800 children living in emergency housing in the city opportunities they may otherwise never experience.
Whitiora School deputy principal Vanessa Cappie said they had an influx of emergency housing students since the pandemic, especially with most of the motels on Ulster St becoming emergency housing. The programme runs two hours a day, four days a week after school and also provides a meal.
Cappie said outside providers are also brought in like basketball coaches, St John, they’ve had martial arts and touch rugby also join in.
Starting with 20 students, it has grown to 40 kids.
It’s also turning police, who the kids see dealing with issues among emergency housing tenants, into people.