'austraLasia' #52

HAVING FUN ON THE STREETS

Fr. Chris Riley (Australia) helps local street kids

Abridged from Catholic Weekly

SYDNEY: February 22nd -- Every Monday 16 year old Richard and his

friend Rattanak, 14, head down to the local car park in Cabramatta.

Often they meet up with other friends. Sometimes they take kids down

there who haven't been before. They all agree it's worth the effort to

get there, because that's where the action is.

Given Cabramatta's image of frug dealers and addicts, street gangs and

drive-by shootings, you could easily think Richard and his mates are up

to no good. But these kids are not, as many would assume, loitering

around a car park 'looking for trouble'. They are in the carpark

because that's where the fun is: basketball, fuse ball, even Sega

computer games..

And the brains behind it all is none other than the man who has helped

countless kids not just across Sydney, but around the country: Fr. Chris

Riley from Youth Off The Streets (YOTS).

Fr. Riley came up with the idea after talking to the kids, the police

and, surprisingly, members of the notorious 5T gang. At first Fr. Riley

started an education program for kids who were hanging out with the 5T.

Some were as young as 10. Eventually, members of the 5T gang asked Fr.

Riley to help them get the youngsters out of the street scene.

It was then that the idea of the mobile basketball rings and Sega games

materialised. With the backing of the police, Fr. Riley set it up in

the car park directly opposite the shops. Initially the local

shopkeepers were horrified. They didn't want any young louts hanging

around near their shops! Now, everybody arranges to meet near the

carpark - because it's the safest in the area. During the evening

police on bicycles pop by as well as Superintendent Debbie Wallis who

played a big part in introducing Fr. Riley to the area.

Although the kids aren't homeless, they are easy targets for street

gangs and drug dealers. And that's what YOTS has effectively stopped.

Fr. Riley said the idea behind the mobile basketball rings and Sega

games is to help kids in the suburbs to stay in the suburbs. YOTS also

has a similar setup near Central (Station) that attracts about half a

dozen kids. But that is as many as Fr. Riley wants. These kids are

street kids and his aim is not to entertain them but to help get them

off the streets. They are prime targets for paedophiles who sometimes

watch the kids from the bridge overlooking the park.

"If kids start to come in from the suburbs because they know we're at

Central I'll stop it because that's not what we're on about. We want to

keep these kids off the streets and keep others in the suburbs. We

don't want kids gravitating towards the city".

The program has proven to be an overwhelming success and Fr. Riley now

plans to start a similar service in Redfern. A boy playing with Fr.

Riley's Great Dane, Collingwood, summed up how he feels about the

program when he said: if more priests were like Fr. Riley, then "things

would be okay, you know".