More than a disco

Editorial: Danielle Ford

Photography: Grant Condon

When most people think of Blue Light Victoria, the first thing that comes to mind is discos, not dirt bikes. But in the small town of Beaufort, that’s exactly what the local Blue Light branch is helping kids enjoy.

The Beaufort Blue Light Motorcycle Club gives underage riders a place to enjoy riding in a supervised environment.

Club president Inspector Steve Towers is one of six local police who volunteer their time to facilitate and supervise the club’s monthly riding meets.

An avid rider since his childhood, Insp Towers said he knows how important it is for young people to have a place to securely enjoy riding.

“I rode bikes a lot as a kid and I know being able to hang out with friends and ride in a proper situation kept me out of trouble,” Insp Towers said.

Beaufort Blue Light Motorcycle Club volunteer Ldg Sen Const Melissa Peters and club president Insp Steve Towers are two of the six police officers who help run the monthly riding events for local youngsters like Hudson Craig-Peters (middle).

While the club has been running for more than 10 years, participation has risen significantly in the past 12 months, with close to 60 children between the ages of five and 17 attending the monthly meets.

“Because the events are supervised by police, safe riding practices are always at the forefront while riding,” Insp Towers said.

“It’s a great way for kids to learn from an early age how to ride carefully.”

Insp Towers said while riding motorcycles around a dirt track is exciting, the club is about more than just having fun on two wheels.

Having grown up in Melbourne’s outer-west, in an area he said was “a bit rough”, Insp Towers knows first-hand the positive impact a good connection with police can have on a young person.

“The local police where I grew up made a big effort to engage with young people and tried to build connections with them,” he said.

“Because of that, I got to know a few of them quite well and that played a big part in a lot of the choices I made growing up.”

It was the memory of this that led Insp Towers to get involved with the motorcycle club nearly three years ago, to help get young people interacting with police.

“Being able to provide a place for kids to safely do an activity they love, while also allowing them a chance to engage and connect with each other, their community and their local police is what it’s all about at the end of the day,” Insp Towers said.

“You can see the difference in the kids who are part of the club. Once they’ve been coming for while, they start to get comfortable and open up to you and the other volunteers and riders.

“You really build a connection with them and that makes them feel more comfortable talking to you about whatever might be going on in their life.”

The same thing is evident at the Preston Blue Light Branch.

Leading Senior Constable Jo Parissis has been involved with the branch for about 16 years and helped establish a boxing program two years ago for at-risk youth attending The Pavilion School.

Ldg Sen Const Jo Parissis (left) established the Preston Blue Light branch's boxing program, which has been attended by more than 60 students.

“The Pavilion School is a unique school, which aims to educate young people that are disengaged from mainstream schooling for various reasons,” Ldg Sen Const Parissis said.

“As the local Youth Resource Officer, I was asked by management to engage with the school to establish a program to get students positively engaging with local police, while improving their physical fitness.

“A boxing program was chosen because it’s a sport that has been shown to instil discipline, self-belief and a sense of belonging in people. Those are all things we want to help young people develop.”

The program initially ran as a trial for the last four weeks of school in 2017 before being instated as an official Blue Light program in February 2018.

“To date, we have now run 43 sessions, which have been attended by 67 different students,” Ldg Sen Const Parissis said.

“The sessions run weekly during the school year at a local boxing gym, with an instructor from the gym conducting the exercises.

“We have at least two police attend each session and 32 different officers have been along since the program began.”

Much the same as the Beaufort club, Ldg Sen Const Parissis said she notices the change in the young people who attend the program, particularly in how they respond to police.

“We’ve had some children come through the program who didn’t really want to be there at first, and really didn’t want to interact with the police volunteers,” she said.

“But over time, you see them start to enjoy the activity and start to build connections with the police.

“Something as simple as spending time with these kids can help change their life and potentially avoid them going down the wrong path.”

Passionate about getting young people engaged with police and their community, Ldg Sen Const Parissis said the benefits of Blue Light branches and events cannot be overlooked.

While the partnership with The Pavilion School has seen great results, Ldg Sen Const Parissis said changes were underway to expand the reach of the program.

“We are in the process of opening the program up to young people in the wider community,” she said.

“This way, we are able to engage with more youth who are identified as at-risk.”

Blue Light Victoria has 35 branches across metro and rural Victoria, covering 16 of the 21 Police Service Areas. All branches run programs aimed at their individual community’s needs.