It might not have thatched cottages, cobbled streets or a town cryer, but the Launceston Police Citizens Youth Club is what you might call a modern day village.
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The village square has been replaced with tea and biccies around scattered chairs and tables and young men and women still find a supportive community to lead them through ‘coming of age’.
Something of a trailblazer, 70 years ago the Launceston PCYC was started by Senior Constable H.F. Hollis, the first in Tasmania.
It soon became apparent the club was a strong force for positive change in the community, and has since led to nine other Police Citizens Youth Clubs in Tasmania.
The second world war inflicted heavy casualties on Australia, and it’s legacy lived on in the sons of servicemen.
The Launceston PCYC was started to provide young boys with missing, damaged and never-returned fathers with a positive influence.
“It was originally started because there were a lot of kids with fathers that didn’t come back from the war and they decided that those boys were running off the rails a little bit and needed some guidance and mentoring,” Launceston PCYC club manager Kath Hawkins said.
Originally called the ‘Police Boys Club’, police officers taught boys and young men boxing, steering them towards a happier future and brighter outlook.
The club was only the second in Australia, and was introduced by Constable Hollis after he visited New South Wales and the Police-Rotary Boys Club in Woolloomooloo, Sydney.
The club struggled at the outset, beleaguered by a ‘bogeyman’ fear of police, as well as staffing and fiscal challenges.
In 1952, six years after it started, the club was teetering. Interest had waned and police officers were resigning from the board, leaving the heavy weight of running the club to fall onto Constable Hollis’ shoulders.
“It got really hard, I was reading letters of [Constable Hollis’] to the Commissioner saying, ‘The president’s resigned, the treasurer's resigned and I'm doing everything and unless you give me some help I’m going to have to resign too,’ and that’s when they put a full time police officer in as a paid role,” Ms Hawkins said.
This proved to be the elixir the club needed, giving it a much needed injection of life.
The club is now a prime player in the community, building champions. Champions in life and champions in sport.
The club runs a gamut of programs for the community, encouraging young and old alike to participate, whatever their level. They offer everything from kindergym, to dance, to boxing, to rock climbing, to fitness for the elderly.
“There wouldn't have been too many people I don't think in Launceston that wouldn't haven’t stepped foot in the place,” Ms Hawkins said.
This fun and supportive environment is the perfect breeding ground to inspire passion and a drive to succeed.
Ms Hawkins said since the club began they have trained multiple national champions, Olympians and Commonwealth Games athletes.
“We raise champions here,” she said.
Most recently PCYC was the training ground for shot put athlete Todd Hodgetts, who won bronze in the Rio Paralympics, and gold in the London Paralympics in 2012.
“I started here in 2000 and it’s been 16 years I’ve been in and out of here, I trained here for many years and did weightlifting and powerlifting and my shot put training with Max O’Toole,” Mr Hodgetts said.
But still at the club’s heart is the foundation it was built upon, to provide experiences, mentoring and support to young people who might not otherwise have those opportunities.
As a community organisation our job is to get young people on track to bright and positive futures. It doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from or what they're doing, PCYC’s a safe place that they can come and just learn to rise to that next level.
- Kath Hawkins
“As a community organisation our job is to get young people on track to bright and positive futures,” Ms Hawkins said.
“It doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from or what they're doing, PCYC’s a safe place that they can come and just learn to rise to that next level ... with plenty of support.”
Alongside its range of community programs, the club provides a range of courses to support vulnerable or disadvantaged youth. They include wilderness courses, a school program transitioning young people back to education and, of course, the physical education on which the club was built.
Ms Hawkins said the relationships that can be built in these physical and informal environments provide opportunities for trust building not easily found in clinical ‘over the desk’ settings.
“Sitting across a desk to talk to a young person about what’s going on in their world is a relly clinical way to try and create a relationship where they can trust you,” she said.
She said watching the young people come out of their shells is incredibly rewarding.
“Where you go from a kid that you can see is not really on track, to them coming back and telling you that they’ve just got their first job and just the pride that you can see.
“If you can help one young person get on track, the knock on benefit of that, of them then being able to support their peers to get on track is just huge,” she said.
Ms Hawkins said the club’s focus is on what young people have to offer, and helping them to achieve that, whatever walk of life they come from.
The strength of the PCYC as a community pillar is its versatility.
That it can provide for the needs of so many, from a young girl who dreams of being a gymnast to an over-80’s widow who just wants companionship and a better quality of life.
You can help the PCYC celebrate its 80th anniversary on Saturday, October 8 from 10am to 2pm. They are holding an Amazing Chase charity event, funds raised will go towards the PCYC and Give Me 5 For Kids.