Helping the community one kid at a time

The team at the NRMA Insurance Shellharbour branch on the south coast of NSW wanted to make a difference in their local community. Especially since so many of their customers were having their cars broken into in The Square.

The employees recognised a need in the community, so they nominated Project ENERGY for a communityhelp Grant. With the financial assistance of IAG’s communityhelp Grant program, Project ENERGY was implemented through the NSW Police Local Area Command and the Police and Community Youth Clubs Lake Illawarra to target local, at-risk youth.

“The focus is on helping them see there are alternatives to a life of crime,” says Pauline Donohoe, Retail Business Manager at the Shellharbour branch.

The project emphasises training and development, as well as one-on-one mentoring.

“We took a group of kids out to Hang Dog, the local rock climbing venue, where we had to learn to trust each other,” says Pauline. “Later we took them to dinner and then – and this was really powerful – we took them to a detention centre to see what it would be like to be there.”

“I loved sitting with them at the centre and talking about what they wanted to do and get out of life. One of the girls wanted to be a vet, and we worked through with her what she needed to do – go back to school, or to a senior college. She didn’t even know that was an option. Having young girls myself, I could talk to them on the same level.”

Other groups were taken trout fishing in Jindabyne and go-karting.

The results of the program have been promising.

“There was one young guy who was the most at risk – he was 13, had dropped out of school, and broke into cars regularly,” says Pauline. “After the program, he’s apparently gone back to school. When the other kids saw this, it changed their outlook as well.”

Since the program started, the relationship between local indigenous communities and police has improved, the amount of crime in the at-risk group has been reduced, and the number of cars broken into around The Square has decreased.

The communityhelp Grants program offers employees the opportunity to nominate a local community group for a grant of up to $5,000. Grants are available to support projects that work to reduce risk in the areas of crime prevention, injury prevention, emergency services, and the environment.