Fiona* grew up in Seymour and remembers what it was like when she was young.
Having had her son at a young age, Fiona knows first-hand how formative a child’s peer group in their early teenage years can be.
Fiona has returned to Seymour with her now 13-year-old son and believes not much has changed in the town when it comes to misspent youth.
She said vaping and smoking marijuana were rife in her son’s peer group and the problem was exacerbated by parents and relatives of her son’s friends who allowed it in their homes.
“I feel like a lot of parents don’t understand that it’s bad. It’s so hard to get your kids to understand when other families are on board with it,” she said.
“Most parents probably don’t want to pass it on, even if they do live that lifestyle.”
When discussing the issue with her son’s school, Fiona was informed that issues of smoking marijuana and vaping were so prevalent, it was hard to control.
“It’s at the point where he isn’t going to school. He’s losing out on education,” she said.
Fiona’s relationship with her son has become fractured as she tries to limit his exposure to harmful environments. She believes a safe space for youth to go in Seymour that is outside of peers’ homes is essential to preventing youth from going down the wrong path.
“I feel like the shire needs to have a bit more to do with this. There needs to be more in the way of youth spaces for kids,” she said.
The Seymour Youth Room is open Tuesday afternoons at Seymour Sports and Aquatic Centre from 3.30pm to 5pm.
“They need to start putting more in place than that tiny youth building. The youth are half the town. It’s not enough,” Fiona said.
Whilst there are programs available for crisis response, preventative measures for Seymour’s teen population are harder to come by.
“I was only able to get help for Sebastian once things were really bad. Before that, I was reaching out to everyone, but it wasn’t until he ran away overnight that I actually got the support,” Fiona said.
One such support agency is the Bridge Youth Service, which offers support for school and education, family relationships, mental health, transport and mentoring.
The Bridge runs an after-school program called U-KREW Seymour for youths aged 12 to 17 every Wednesday from 3.45pm to 5.45pm at Chittick Park.
However, Fiona said that more intensive support was often limited by age.
“A lot of the programs in town like The Bridge want the kids to be 16, but there needs to be something for the kids when they are younger, 12 and 13, when they are just starting to test the waters,” she said.
“By 15 or 16, it’s too late for them.”
Like Fiona, Gnarley Neighbours youth group founder Jayden Sheridan has identified a gap in local youth programs, with many children who need extra support socially not meeting the age requirement for programs.
“It’s the core reason I started Gnarly ... kids need connection,” he said.
“There needs to be somewhere with an open-door policy. Light House in Shepparton is a good example, that’s quite successful. It needs to be ongoing.
“The biggest thing is the kids falling through the cracks. Although there are organisations in place, a lot of them are set up for people when they need help, not set up for prevention.
“Seeing the older kids stop going to school and smoking it bears heavy on my heart because I can see these kids haven’t got the prevention and help soon enough.”
Despite the difficulties of engaging this age group, Mr Sheridan has seen positive results from his program.
“Being just one person and already seeing so much change through prevention and friendships formed early on, it can reduce the risk of kids going down the wrong path,” he said.
“The possibility to do other things and see things, even if you have made some poor decisions, is a benefit of being connected to other people your age and having support systems in place.”
Having previously lived in Darwin, Fiona worked at a YMCA centre that her son attended. She believes it was a simple and cost-effective model, with initiatives like running buses to activities or home from the youth centre of an evening, that could be replicated in Mitchell Shire.
For youth groups such as Gnarly Neighbours, funding limits the capacity to implement such options.
“I’m trying to turn a new leaf but with only the resources and support of the community, while learning everything as I go, it’s not as quick as it could be,” Mr Sheridan said.
“YMCA is very fortunate because they have got government support. If council could come on board and we had a tender in place, then I would be able to grow the programs.”
Gnarley Neighbours has had success in surrounding shires.
Murrundi and Strathbogie shires have recently engaged Gnarly Neighbours to run workshops at local skate parks and schools to boost the group’s reach and maximise positive impact.
Mitchell Shire Council chief executive officer Brett Luxford said council’s youth services team worked with community partners like Gnarly Neighbours to create options for youth engagement.
“Providing services and supporting the development of young people in Mitchell Shire is an important part of council’s role,” Mr Luxford said.
“I encourage young people and their parents to regularly check our youth services social pages and website to see what services are available and what activities and events are coming up near you.”
The council statement also said Seymour Sports and Aquatic Centre runs teen gym classes with a structured program for ages 13 to 15.
But Fiona and Mr Sheridan agree that a long-standing issue with youth engagement in the town is not going to be resolved by maintaining the status quo.
“Brushing these kids to the side and saying, ‘that’s just Seymour’, that’s just an excuse,” Fiona said.
“There are a lot of good people and good families, but as long as people keep saying that, it’s what it’s going to be forever.
“I want my kids to do better than I did, I don’t want them to make the same stupid mistakes.”
* We have changed Fiona’s name in this article for the sake of privacy and security.