BY JEM ANSHAW
What we now know as the Muswellbrook PCYC will next month celebrate three decades of service to the community.
One of the two police officers who put the wheels in motion to get what is now Muswellbrook PCYC up and running was on hand to help celebrate three decades of the facility in our community.
David Sorensen came to Muswellbrook in the early 80s as a Constable First Class with Muswellbrook Police Patrol when he and fellow officer Constable Michael Huggett noticed a troubling trend in the community.
“We found this trend of problematic youth becoming constant repeat offenders, and a group at risk of falling into that group,” he said.
“We had to get the club up and running to resolve some of the trouble we had with the trending high risk young people.”
In 1989 they ran their first official program, a Cop Camp where 30 boys attended a weekend away with mentors to help them understand respect, community and self-esteem, while also learning skills like how to do domestic tasks and getting physically active.
Twelve months later the feedback from schools and the community was that it had made a positive difference to the attendees, and there was no turning back.
“30 years ago the whole dream was to help get young people back on track and it’s wonderful to see that the club is still doing that, and expanding into other areas,” Mr Sorensen said.
“We just had a genuine feeling that there was issues that needed addressing before they became our problem, a police problem.
“We didn’t want to go locking up young people continuously, so that was the goal we wanted to improve their moral, their self esteem and just bring them back on the straight and narrow, to have some respect for not only themselves but for the community they lived in.”
The club looks quite different to when he has been there last but Mr Sorensen said the community support is one thing that has not wavered.
“It is very heart warming, very humbling to know it is still a prominent facility within the community and it is still helping young people,” he said.
“Without the support of the community, as police we wouldn’t have got this off the ground, and the community was very supportive of what we were doing as police.”
The Upper Hunter Citizen and Police Youth Club opened in November 1990 with the purpose of helping at risk youth, but over the years it has evolved into a community asset.
