Street sports an 'entry point' to help combat youth crime and loneliness

Youth hubs and 'third spaces' for young people are being touted as solutions to growing concerns about youth crime, loneliness and radicalisation.

Three recent NSW parliamentary inquiries have all recommended further investment in youth hubs and other programs to strengthen belonging and address isolation.

Youth hubs are community spaces staffed by qualified youth workers, where young people can build connections with peers and mentors.

Samey Minkara is the founder of charity Street Industries, which runs temporary youth spaces throughout Sydney's west and south.

His work in the sector has been informed by his own experience growing up in a housing commission in Sydney's south-west, and experiencing homelessness when he was 17.

"We thought, how do we change the dynamic? Instead of trying to chase young people to access services, how do we get young people gravitating towards us?" he said.

Street sports an 'entry point' for support

Recently, the Street Industries team converted a rooftop shopping centre car park at Liverpool into a street football venue, and regularly runs street basketball games in Penshurst.

Mr Minkara considers sport an "entry point" for striking up deeper conversations about issues young people are facing.

"So street sports is more of a proactive initiative that goes into community, develops relationships with young people through sport and trying to divert them from crisis," he said.

"Having a relationship with young people before crisis helps us a lot with supporting them when there is a crisis."

One of the mentors involved is Saleh Jaidi, who uses the basketball court to connect with disadvantaged young people and help them overcome barriers.

"So we kind of focus on discipline, employment, goal mapping, career mapping and just making sure that it doesn't matter where you grow up, you can change your future and create something special," he said.

Funding an ongoing 'battle'

While some youth hubs operate as temporary pop-up spaces in the community, others are battling for a more permanent location.

On the Central Coast, about an hour north of Sydney, Alex O'Neal is seeing first-hand the growing complexity of challenges young people face.

"Loneliness is a big one coming out of COVID," he said.

"We still see the impact of that in terms of school disengagement, social cohesion, social groups, places where young people can be with each other in a positive way."

His organisation, Regional Youth Support Services (RYSS), has been operating on the Central Coast for 40 years and works with about 1,000 young people a year.

At one site known as the 'kiosk', youth caseworkers help young people with resume writing, job applications and other life skills that help build independence.

Another site in the heart of Gosford operates as a drop-in site offering services that help divert young people away from the justice system.

But its flagship hub had to close in 2024 after funding expired, and Mr O'Neal said sustained long-term government support was "really difficult to come by".

"It's something that you need to really battle for, particularly in regional areas," he said.

"It makes it really hard to get something off the ground and sustain it for a long period of time."

Stocktake of youth hubs underway

The call for more funding for youth hubs was also underlined in recent parliamentary inquiries looking at loneliness, youth crime and right-wing extremism.

The state's peak body for young people, Youth Action, has now begun formally mapping the availability of youth spaces across NSW.

Youth Action CEO Lauren Stracey said it would identify where there were gaps in services across the state, and where government investment was needed.

"We're really heavily responding when things go wrong, but we're far less invested in helping young people grow up well," she said.

The organisation points to the success of 'youth wellness hubs' in the Canadian province of Ontario, which have been rolled out to 22 sites to address gaps in youth mental health and addiction services.

Ms Stracey, who previously worked as an adolescent psychologist, said hubs provided a space for young people to build positive connections.

"We need to be ensuring that young people feel like they belong, that they have places to go that they're connected to their community, because we know that when young people feel connected, communities are stronger as well," she said.

Minister for Youth Rose Jackson said the NSW government had spent more than $9 million this year on youth programs.

"We've heard the calls for more places and third spaces for young people and we're actively exploring how we can support that," Ms Jackson said in a statement.

The youth hub mapping project, which is being done in partnership with the NSW Office of Youth, is expected to produce its findings by the end of the year.