“Brothers, not colours”

“I was a drunken bum with nothing to do,” says 17-year-old ex-gang member Merika. “When I first turned up at Streets Ahead, I was the only one wearing gang colours. So I left. But then I thought about it, got involved, dropped my colours. Now I’m a youth leader.”

It’s a story that Fa’amatuainu Wayne Poutoa also knows first hand. “When I saw our kids imitating my gang culture I knew it was time to change.” So Wayne left the Mongrel Mob, got a social work degree and started Streets Ahead in Waitangirua, near Porirua. “We‘re all born equal, but we’re not all born with equal opportunities,” he says.

Streets Ahead addresses this lack of opportunity by working with the young people and families who “every agency in this community knows”. Families are actively involved, and young people are expected to run the programme and be role models and mentors for others. As youth leader Abbiella says, “There are no Bloods or Crips here, everyone is just family.”

The Todd Foundation has provided some of the much-needed funding to further develop and support this initiative as part of our youth development focus. “We’ve received quite a lot of recognition and a few awards, but not much funding so far,” says Wayne.