By Samantha Wantling
It seems every day we are confronted with loaded words like thugs, monsters and delinquents when it comes to describing the youth in our society. The media has a field day portraying our youth as something other than desirable members of our community.
But last week I had the privilege of attending the Aleva Estate Building Future’s Program. What I witnessed filled me with a sense of pride in the youth who will be the next leaders of our community.
Not one of these youth had a similar path; they all shared different starts, different upbringings, and very different dreams for their future.
I listened to one girl state she was going to share her prize money with her school and her club. Another recipient stopped in one of his competitions to help an injured fellow competitor, giving up his chance of winning the event. Every single youngster shows an inordinate amount of grit and determination that, if you listen to mainstream media, the youth of today don’t possess.
Well, I can guarantee you, the mainstream media is wrong.
Sure, there are kids who find themselves on the wrong side of the law, but not one of them started out life that way and whilst we can pass new laws, do research on rehabilitation, and try to fix the behaviour, maybe we should be looking at the kids before the problems start. And maybe, just maybe, sport is one (and I say one) of the solutions.
If sport can teach our youth about putting others before yourself, about teamwork, about following directions, about never being afraid to try and sometimes fail and most importantly about belonging, then maybe we should be putting more into making sure the youth in this region have better access to sport.
After all, isn’t our legacy not what we do for ourselves, but what we are doing for our next generation.
