STREET KIDS CRIME PREVENTION

After a series of meetings between National Police Commissioner and his SAPS strategic team, together with Beach Soccer and other sporting Legends bodies such as soccer, cricket, hockey and Netball (which we are helping start up), we have launched the Street Kids Crime Prevention Program.

The concept is to work with each divisional Police Commissioner and utilize their network and logistics to get the Street Kids off the street and playing sport ala Sao Paolo and Brasilia in Brazil which reduced the crime rate by a huge percentage.

Besides providing SUPERIOR ENTERTAINMENT, IN Brazil sport has become a key instrument for restoring civic pride in poor communities, which is a challenge that South Africa also faces. Noticing that the highest proportion of crimes committed in their region took place between 11pm and 2am, the Public Security and Education Departments of Brazil's capital Brasilia established the Midnight Sports project in 1999. The authorities focused their attention on the townships of Planaltina, Gama, Ceilandia and Samambaia, areas that sprang up in the periphery of Brasilia when Brazil's capital was built in the 1960s and had become hotspots for gang related violence since.

"We realized that there was basically no infrastructure for leisure and sports for youths and decided to build two centers, each set in the areas of the highest gang violence," said Carlo Eduardo Paes, coordinator of Midnight Sports. According to Paes, in the first three months of operation there was a 20% drop in the rate of violent incidents in the community.

Since its first days back in 1999, Midnight Sports has taken close to 538,000 youths to the playing fields. The rules are very simple: All youth are free to take part in the project's activities. A bus service to the soccer fields is available free of charge. The only requirement is that participants go through a police search before boarding the bus, a violence prevention procedure that is intended to guarantee security for all.

Says Paes, "The police officers who work with us are especially trained to interact with youth. They establish a connection to the community, and become more than mere agents of security, they become positive role models." The police are trained to always engage in conversation with youths and not to act in a confrontational manner, even during the body searches. "It is important that the presence of the law enforcement is felt in these areas as efficient and understanding, making sure, of course, that it does not look like there is any favoritism."

The project includes psychologists and social service workers, who provide lectures on health and sexuality as well as counseling on family planning, contraception, prevention of STDs and drug abuse.

One of the main guidelines of the Midnight Sports project is to choose inclusion over punishment. "It would be too harsh a punishment to simply expel youth from the project who may get involved in offending. It is our philosophy not to bar them because so often their lives are marked by exclusion. We are informed of who stops going to school through our partnership with the Department of Education. Our professionals follow up with visits to their homes to ask them why they are giving up their schooling," said Paes.

This aspect is especially crucial, because many of those involved are night-time students from poor communities. "They are invisible to our statistics, and there are very few projects that can track their academic progress," said Paes.

An independent evaluation of the project was conducted from May to December 2006. The results are encouraging: only 13% committed offenses during the eight years that the centers have been open.

Despite its recent successes, Midnight Sports was initially faced with a fair amount of resistance. Local residents found it hard to believe that the centers would not lead to increased police brutality in the area. And neighbors complained of the noise. "We had a series of meetings with local leaders to overcome their skepticism and introduce the project. Nowadays our difficulties are in selecting which communities will host the sports centers from a pool of applicants", says Paes.

Key to the successes, Midnight Sports was initially faced with a fair amount of resistance. Local residents found it hard to believe that the centers would not lead to increased police brutality in the area. And neighbors complained of the noise. "We had a series of meetings with local leaders to overcome their skepticism and introduce the project. Nowadays our difficulties are in selecting which communities will host the sports centers from a pool of applicant", says Paes.

Key to the success of the Midnight Sports Project are a fixed pitch, good lighting and the visible presence of law enforcement officers, which often become mentors, and even players. Community participation is crucial for the selection of the site for the project. Communities selected must prove they have a security council and that they are open to dialogue. "Community security cannot be imposed top-down by the government, the community must take an active role of its own", concludes Paes.

In a similar project SAPS will utilize confiscated buildings to house the kids at night and to feed them, whilst during the day we will perform sporting activities, either on the beach or at retail shopping malls.

One objective is whilst you have their attention is to educate them on life's principles and ethics and ultimately re-unite them with their parents.

As case studies, we have identified Point Road in KZN, Soweto in Gauteng, Arcadia in Pretoria and Kayaleisha in Cape Town.