Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with Balunu foundation CEO David Coles and Moses who has gone through the Balunu programmes

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Katie Woolf spoke with Balunu foundation CEO David Coles and Moses who has gone through the Balunu programmes · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: Mix one o four point nine dot com dot you
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  Speaker 1: for all the latest news and information. Now three sixty
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  Speaker 1: with Katie Wolf. Everyone is listening Mix one oh four
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  Speaker 1: point nine, one hundred percent.
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  Speaker 2: I think it's pretty safe to say that for quite
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  Speaker 2: a long time on this show, you know, we've been
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  Speaker 2: hearing concerns about some of the issues we've gotten in
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory when it comes to youth crime, and
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  Speaker 2: I've got to say, you know, a lot of the
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  Speaker 2: time there seems to be a lot of discussion, you know,
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  Speaker 2: from myself included, but not a lot when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to some of the solutions and some of the solutions
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  Speaker 2: that we can be looking at that are maybe already
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  Speaker 2: happening out there as well. Now joining us in the
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  Speaker 2: studio right now, I have got the Balanu Foundation CEO
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  Speaker 2: David Coles. Good morning to you, morning, Katy, and I'm
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  Speaker 2: also joined by Moses. Good morning, Moses, morning.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: It's great to have you both in the studio. David,
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  Speaker 2: you and I have spoken on the show before in
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  Speaker 2: the past. We haven't caught up with you for a
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  Speaker 2: little while, but about a week ago we had Ken
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  Speaker 2: Vows on the show and he was certainly singing your
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  Speaker 2: praises about some of the work that the Balanu Foundation
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  Speaker 2: is doing, and also about the launch in just a
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  Speaker 2: little while of the Save our Youth campaign. Now, before
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  Speaker 2: we get into that, can you explain to our listeners
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  Speaker 2: a little bit about the Balanu Foundation and the work
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  Speaker 2: that you guys do.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, the Balanu Foundation, we founded it in two
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  Speaker 3: thousand and five through just personally identifying the gaps and
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  Speaker 3: services growing up in Darwin and looking at the need
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  Speaker 3: for the kids at risk, and so we set up
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  Speaker 3: the foundation with a vision of just creating a safe
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  Speaker 3: place to take kids away and give them some time
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  Speaker 3: out and give them some tools to be able to
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  Speaker 3: cope and build their resilience. So we ran our first
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  Speaker 3: pilot camp in two thousand and six, unaware of what
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  Speaker 3: we were doing, just taking kids out blindly and just
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  Speaker 3: seeing the effect that would have on them, and we
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  Speaker 3: noticed an immediate impact in their change and energy, their mindset.
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  Speaker 3: And then giving them tools and empowering them and getting
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  Speaker 3: them to understand their trauma a bit better and how
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  Speaker 3: to deal with that. We noticed that even after that
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  Speaker 3: first camp leaving the program, those kids had made a
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  Speaker 3: significant change in their mindset.
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  Speaker 2: How many kids would you say have gone through that
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  Speaker 2: program since two thousand and six, Have you got any idea?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've taken out physically taken out over eight hundred
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  Speaker 3: kids to our healing retreat. In those eight hundred children
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  Speaker 3: we've had, we identified that eighty five percent of them
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  Speaker 3: had either attempted or wanted to suicide at the time.
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  Speaker 3: And in Dahen we have the highest used suicide rates
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  Speaker 3: per capita in the world. So what we we've been
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  Speaker 3: to and out of those eight hundred plus children, we've
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  Speaker 3: been to one funeral in fifteen years, which is one
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  Speaker 3: too many for me, but we've prevented many more. We
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  Speaker 3: know the program works.
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  Speaker 2: And that's the thing when you talk about then the
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  Speaker 2: success rate and you know the impact that it has
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  Speaker 2: on those kids that have been through the program. Do
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  Speaker 2: you feel as though you've had a good success race?
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  Speaker 2: I know that. You know when you look at suicide,
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  Speaker 2: like you've said, one child lost is one too many.
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  Speaker 2: But when you look at you know, kids reoffending or
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  Speaker 2: doing the wrong thing, do you reckon you've had a
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  Speaker 2: good success right, Well, it's.
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  Speaker 3: Not what I reckon, it's what the Northern Territory Government's
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  Speaker 3: valuation and the University of New South Wales valuation reckons,
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  Speaker 3: and what they reckon is that our program stops kids reoffending,
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  Speaker 3: reduces a recidivism rate, stops them suiciding, reduces their self
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  Speaker 3: harm and substance abuse, re engages them back in school,
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  Speaker 3: red and engages them back into family and ultimately, you know,
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  Speaker 3: my opinion doesn't matter when you start to look at
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  Speaker 3: the facts. Because Michael Gunner asked Priscilla Collins, who's the
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  Speaker 3: CEO of NAJA, what her opinion was of the Bullanu Foundation,
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  Speaker 3: and Priscilla's response was, I won't give you my opinion,
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  Speaker 3: I'll give you my legal team's opinion. And my legal
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  Speaker 3: team's opinion is when kids go to bulling you, we
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  Speaker 3: don't see them back in court.
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  Speaker 2: Why are we not doing it with more kids?
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  Speaker 3: That's the question that we need to ask the government.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, the Royal Commission was a seventy million dollar
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  Speaker 3: investigation and I had a senior lawyer come out to
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  Speaker 3: personally shake my hand and congratulate me, and I said,
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  Speaker 3: why are you shaking my hand. We're not even running
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  Speaker 3: programs at the moment, and he said, our investigation has
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  Speaker 3: found that bulling you is the only shining light in
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  Speaker 3: this entire investigation that was made clear through the Through
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  Speaker 3: the investigation, it's proven that it works. It shows that
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  Speaker 3: it works, and since then, the government spent sixty sixty
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  Speaker 3: million dollars post the findings of that. They spent sixty
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  Speaker 3: six million dollars on it, and nothing on healing programs
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  Speaker 3: and helping us build up our facility and get more
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  Speaker 3: kids out there. Because if you got if you've got
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  Speaker 3: kids out there, and we will fund it adequately, the realities,
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  Speaker 3: you wouldn't need a detention center.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Moses, I want to go across to you, mate,
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  Speaker 2: you actually went through this program. When did you go
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  Speaker 2: through it?
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  Speaker 4: I think I went through the program in twenty eleven, yep,
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  Speaker 4: and pretty much haven't looked back since then.
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  Speaker 2: And tell us a little bit about why you needed
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  Speaker 2: to go through that program.
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  Speaker 4: So at the time, I was just disengaged from school,
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  Speaker 4: wasn't doing much, and my mum and dad reached out
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  Speaker 4: to Uncle David and said, he are you ready to
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  Speaker 4: get him out of here? He's heading down the wrong path.
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  Speaker 4: And yeah, one thing led to another and back here today.
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  Speaker 2: How big an impact did it have on your life? Then?
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  Speaker 2: Going through that program? And where are you at now.
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  Speaker 4: Made a big impact on my life, particularly the fact
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  Speaker 4: that you gave me someone else to talk to other
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  Speaker 4: than mum and dad. Been keeping in talks with Uncle
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  Speaker 4: David pretty much since the first initial camp and even
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  Speaker 4: till today. I still call him up every now and
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  Speaker 4: then and get some advice on how to do things properly.
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  Speaker 2: I guess you know, it's really it's a terrible situation,
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  Speaker 2: but some kids might not be in that case where
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  Speaker 2: like you were, where they've got a mum and dad
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  Speaker 2: who are going to reach out to David? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: is that where we have some of these kids really
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  Speaker 2: falling through the gap?
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  Speaker 3: No, because one of our most successful referrals are kids
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  Speaker 3: self referring. When we were running programs, I actually stopped
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  Speaker 3: walking through casher in it because I've got sick of
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  Speaker 3: saying no to kids. I had kids bringing kids up
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  Speaker 3: to me and saying, Uncle, he or she needs it,
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  Speaker 3: can you please take them out? And in the end,
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  Speaker 3: when we were running programs and all the kids knew
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  Speaker 3: about it, we had kids coming up and just self
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  Speaker 3: referring or contacting us, And to me, that's a testament
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  Speaker 3: to the program's success.
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  Speaker 2: So where are we at now are you still running
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  Speaker 2: the program and are kids still able to go through it?
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  Speaker 3: We're starting a girls camp on Monday. We just finished
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  Speaker 3: the boys camp last month. We've been funded only for
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  Speaker 3: three camps, which is really nothing in terms of reaching
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  Speaker 3: the impact that we need out there for the children.
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  Speaker 3: We've never been funded more than fifteen percent of what
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  Speaker 3: we need to operate. Yet we've achieved amazing success and
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  Speaker 3: outcomes off that minimal funding. But what that results in
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  Speaker 3: is extreme burnout in staffing and people and particularly myself.
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  Speaker 3: But it's look, we know, with the program operating fully
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  Speaker 3: doing intense follow up, we would not need a youth
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  Speaker 3: detention center.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I know you're all so launching the Save our
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  Speaker 2: Youth campaign. When's that kicking off and tell us a
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  Speaker 2: little bit more about it.
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  Speaker 3: Well, technically it's kicked off already. We have the Grandmother's,
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  Speaker 3: the Grandmother's Group and other springs who have been walking
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  Speaker 3: the streets and trying to help these kids and calling
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  Speaker 3: out for help for a while. The last couple of
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  Speaker 3: visits to our springs, I took the time to walk
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  Speaker 3: the streets till two three am, just talking to the
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  Speaker 3: different kids and getting a perspective on what's happening from
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  Speaker 3: there and what are the problems, what are the issues,
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  Speaker 3: and what are their needs and one of the main things,
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  Speaker 3: and this was prior to winter, I mean obviously now
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  Speaker 3: it's winter, it's called a lot of the kids are freezing.
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  Speaker 3: So we just had six boxes of clothing donated from
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  Speaker 3: a clothing company in Adelaide that arrived yesterday. The Grandmother's
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  Speaker 3: group started to hand that out last night tonight and
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  Speaker 3: over the weekend they'll be handing them out. We are
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  Speaker 3: striving to set up a food because a lot of
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  Speaker 3: the kids on the street are just hungry. A lot
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  Speaker 3: of the crime and a lot of kids are stealing
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  Speaker 3: to eat. So if we can alleviate the need for food,
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  Speaker 3: we reduce the crime because the most of them are
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  Speaker 3: stealing to eat. One of the strongest messages I've got, Katie,
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  Speaker 3: and this is the saddest thing that that resonated with me,
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  Speaker 3: is I had quite a few girls, young girls walk
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  Speaker 3: up to me and say, uncle, us girls need somewhere
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  Speaker 3: safe to go, We need somewhere safe to sleep. A
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  Speaker 3: couple of these girls had had eight year old siblings
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  Speaker 3: in prams and most of the kids are on the
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  Speaker 3: street and other springs are wild pre kids. And this
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  Speaker 3: is all off the back of the un demo shooting,
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  Speaker 3: the fear that was put into the community. After that,
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  Speaker 3: there was militarized m sixteen officers on every corner that
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  Speaker 3: put a great deal of fear into the community. That
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  Speaker 3: community flooded out of there into already overcrowded town camps
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  Speaker 3: and other springs. So their flow and effect from that
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  Speaker 3: is all the overcrowd and all the issues there is
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  Speaker 3: pushing these kids onto the street. So we as a society,
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  Speaker 3: we own this, and what we are calling out is
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  Speaker 3: for everyone to unite with us, to walk with us.
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  Speaker 3: We don't like to see the anti social behavior and
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  Speaker 3: the crime and everything like anybody else and the kids
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  Speaker 3: or the family, but we as a community own this
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  Speaker 3: and we've got a real solution. We want to put
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  Speaker 3: warmth on these kids' backs, food in their bellies, and
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  Speaker 3: give them a safe place to go and then work
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  Speaker 3: with the families on reuniting them back to the families
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  Speaker 3: and giving them a safe place for these young girls
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  Speaker 3: to go in, particularly the young kids. So that's what
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  Speaker 3: the campaign's about.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, we are running out of time. We've got
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  Speaker 2: to head across to the National News in just a moment.
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  Speaker 2: But Moses, before we wrap up, Mate, to anyone out
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  Speaker 2: there listening, who maybe you know, who maybe thinks, oh, look,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've got these young people who are on
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  Speaker 2: the streets, who are running a mark in some cases,
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  Speaker 2: you know, is this really going to make a difference.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, as someone who's gone through this program and
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  Speaker 2: who now you know is part of it and part
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  Speaker 2: of helping these young kids to stay on the right track,
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  Speaker 2: what would you say to those people that are listening.
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  Speaker 4: It will make a difference if they do come through
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  Speaker 4: the Ball and You Foundation, and it can and not
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  Speaker 4: only in a short term run, but also in the
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  Speaker 4: long term.
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  Speaker 2: Look, I really appreciate you both coming in this morning.
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  Speaker 2: I think it gives everybody a bit of perspective, gives
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  Speaker 2: our listeners a bit of perspective, and I'd be keen
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  Speaker 2: to catch up again down the track just to hear
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  Speaker 2: how that launch goes and how things are tracking along.
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  Speaker 2: David Coles, really good to meet you in person, and
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  Speaker 2: we also appreciate you coming in this morning Moses and
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  Speaker 2: telling us a bit more about your experiences. Thank you
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  Speaker 2: both so much, Thanks your time, Katie, you're listening to
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  Speaker 2: Mix one oh four point nine's three p sixty