‘We need people to come together to help our youth,’ says Bradley Walker, CEO of the Magpie Community Centre based in Goonellabah.
Mr Walker is calling a public community meeting for 5.30pm, Thursday, January 23 at the Goonellabah Sports Club/Lismore Workers Club at 202 Oliver Ave, Goonellabah.
‘I am just a community member looking for solutions,’ Mr Walker told The Echo.
‘We want to bring back that focus on engaging with young people. I want to sit down and have a conversation about the youth in our community, pathway planning, and how we get the right services and operations involved to create opportunities for young people.
Real help not be vigilante groups
‘It is not about being a vigilante group, this is not about taking this into our own hands – this is about getting into contact with people in the community and how we can help our youth and see what we can do to help our youth.’
Mr Walker says he is modelling what he is doing on the Magpie Centre that helped him when he was younger and he is looking to replicate some of that work to help young people in Goonellabah and Lismore today.
‘When we were young they asked what we wanted so we set up a basketball court, they had a bus that would collect us from town on Thursdays and Fridays and we’d do things at the centre. There were local camps, visits beaches, ten pin bowling and to places like Stradbroke Island, we had events with the local fire brigade, we had programs happening about fixing up housing,’ he explained.
Bringing the right people together
Mr Walker says he has invited a wide range of people to attend the meeting including Lismore MP Janelle Saffin, Minister for Page Kevin Hogan, local councillors, the Richmond Police District Superintendent and legal aid and youth justice representatives.
The Lismore Aboriginal Legal Service will be attending and are supportive of community-based action that utilise evidence-based solutions and diversionary programs.
‘Magpie Community Centre is where black and white can work together. You have a community screaming out for help and the solutions have got to be led by the community,’ said Mr Walker.
‘I want to play a part in getting people to get a yarn going. The Magpie Community Centre is about closing the gap and reconciliation. I’m trying to get young people away from the correction system as much as possible. Our young Indigenous men, if we can try and put them on the right pathway and keep them out of that system that is a win for everyone. If they go into the big house, that’s where black deaths on custody start – it is important that we close the gap and create pathways for young people that don’t take them into the criminal justice system.
‘Join us and let’s have a big talk about getting those services and operations involved. To create real solutions we have to get everyone involved in this from local police, councillors, and businesses to local community members,’ said Mr Walker.
For more information you can contact Mr Walker on 0477 831 694 or look the Magpie Community Centre up on social media.
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