By Victoria Stone-Meadows
The Cook Islands Community of Cranbourne is leading a grassroots revolution to get youth off the streets and away from gang-related crime.
The group applied for a grant from the State Government, and has received $400,000 from the Community Infrastructure and Cultural Precincts (CICP) program.
The group will be using the money to build a community education and cultural facility to help engage and educate Cook Island youth.
Cook Islands Community Leader Mata Tuerei Mani said while they first wanted to build a church in Cranbourne, they decided to lean more towards building a general multi-use facility.
“We are a church group that decided to build in Cranbourne, and we incorporated whole Cook Island Presbyterian Fellowship Incorporated to raise money for the project,” she said.
“We wanted to help out the community and also have a small church to bring them into.”
However, as the church group noticed more and more problems occurring among the youth in their community, they saw a great need to help young people in the area.
“We want to be able to keep our community’s traditions alive, but the reason why we are rushing ahead now is we have heard about the APEX issue so much and mainly need to train our children in our culture,” Ms Mani said.
“Our children were drifting onto the wrong side of the law, so we rushed to get it done and as well as using it as a church, it will be a community complex to educate kids.”
“The main idea is to keep youth off the streets and doing something constructive.”
The Cook Islands community complex will use classes such as Bible College, community engagement initiatives and a partnership with Christians against Poverty (CAP) to help young people stay clear of trouble.
“CAP has been a great influence in bringing youth off the streets and teaching them to use money wisely, so they don’t turn to crime,” Ms Mani said.
“CAP also has a program for young ones dabbling in drugs and things like that to help them beat addictions that lead to other problems.”
The community complex is well on the way to completion with the help of the grant from the State Government with Ms Mani hoping they will be operational in the next few months.
While the building is being constructed by the Cook Islands community, Ms Mani said it would be open for use by other groups who need a space for their community.
“We want to make the community aware that once we have a facility up we want to share with other groups who want to hire it,” she said.
“It will be available to any other ethnic groups who ware wanting to practise their culture and community.”
The government CICP program granted $4.22 million to over 30 community groups across the state to support community facilities and initiatives.
Minister for Multicultural Affairs Robin Scott announced the grants on Wednesday 3 May saying the government supports the multicultural communities of Victoria.
“Diverse communities make a huge contribution to our state and society, but it is important they can stay connected to their cultural roots,” she said.
“By working together with local communities, we can build a Victoria where everyone belongs, feels accepted and contributes.”
