Living your values and leading with purpose

Today is a significant day for Impact Policy, where we announce our grant program as part of the Spark Impact movement. Reinvesting funding directly into community recreation programs starting with a partnership with Redfern PCYC. This funding will go directly towards removing financial barriers associated with accessing sport and recreation opportunities for children and their families.

For me today is an emotional one, I am back in Redfern. I am not FROM Redfern. It is important to state that clearly. BUT I have a strong connection to the community.

My father lived on the Block and it was there, where my sister was forcibly removed at age 7 and made a ward of the state. Around the corner from Redfern PCYC is Morehead St, where I lived when I was 20 and homeless through then Bondi Youth Accommodation now known as Caretakers who gave me housing through a homeless youth accommodation program.

When I took the room, the case worker confessed to me “Sam I have to tell you that the guys that lived here before you, one of them murdered the other, I would feel bad putting you hear not telling you what happened”, what was I too say to that? I had no where else to go anyway. So I said well "there is only one room here with brand new carpet, so I assume that’s the murder room, but is the biggest so can I have that?" Anyway that time of my life is a big yarn for another day!

PCYC played a massive role in my life, not so much PCYC actually but the people that were there. I first got taken to PCYC in Glebe when I was 15 to plant trees but the Police youth liaison officer who no joke was about 4ft too as part of a program to divert us from crime, this was after a visit to I think it was Parramatta goal but I am not sure, where they tried to scare the crime out of us. Surprisingly enough they don’t take kids into prison any more for these types of tours..

When I was homeless in high school, spending time in group homes and OOHC I use to go to Glebe PCYC and sneak into the gym at 6am before school as no one was working in the office, I continued to do this after high school as well.

One day, the Police officer working there started yarning to me, he was a champion and a real champion for young people in Glebe. Funnily enough, It was at my most vulnerable that he by chance reached out to me, I had just couch surfed my way through my first semester of uni at UNSW studying teaching and made the decision to defer cause I had had enough of stealing food at peak hour from the make your own sandwich and weigh it shop or eating $2 boiled rice with satay sauce from the Chinese takeaway, something had to change.

Deferred from uni, unable to find a job and homeless I quickly found myself back into old habits, what was comfortable in my community and where I had the strongest sense of belonging. So much trauma and tragedy around me. Crime, drugs so much trauma – it was a scary time as a parent now looking back.

I felt so desperate me and my friends (important point here – my story is not an isolated experience, but one of many for kids from Glebe) quickly found ourselves in situations and networks that were only going one way and that was to prison (as some did) or deep into that cycle of trauma, poverty and addiction (some still are).

One day I had been pulled into a plan to do something terrible, I woke up and I went to the gym in the morning, like I did most days. That cop yarned to me like he always did and he said, hey Sam there is a job going here in the office its only casual but if your keen ill get you an interview with the manager this afternoon.

I went back to where I was couch surfing in Kings X, I already had this feeling in my gut about that day and what we were supposed to do and with the opportunity for a job I called my friend and said bro I’m not coming this afternoon, I don’t feel good about it and I got a job interview now. My friend tried to convince me and told me all would be good and luckily I had the opportunity for a job that gave me a tangible reason to not crumble to the pressure.

Long story short, my friend was arrested a few weeks later for what happened that day and I found myself on a trajectory that gave me the chance to claw myself out of the hole that I had found myself in. it was a long journey and not straightforward but the opportunity at pcyc was a turning point in my life.

I worked at pcyc for five years, while I found stability and went on to complete most of my degree part time. I got the opportunity to design and implement community led programs for young people from Glebe that had came from exactly where I had and I cut my teeth as a criminologist applying theory and perspective into how I could think about and respond to youth crime and juvenile justice in my own community.

But if I rewound before PCYC back to Glebe as a child, I would have to say that the most protective factor for myself and many of my closest friends was the opportunity to access the Glebe Basketball Association, which in essence was just giving us the same opportunity as any other kid.

I started year 7 at Balmain High School @sydney secondary college, in a crazy course of events I found myself suspended three times in the first four weeks of year 7. It was wild looking back, some were misunderstanding where I still don’t believe I did anything wrong, but there was one violent fight that saw me suspended significantly and asked to leave the school.

So I transferred to Glebe High School. I went to my enrolment meeting with the principal. I was alone and I was sitting in her office while she was out. On her desk I saw a post it note. It read "Sam Alderton Big Boy – Short Fuse” – im not making this stuff up!

They enrolled me in (i was a Glebe local so i dont think they had a choice) and my journey started there. I noticed there was this great basketball team, filled with all these older boys from my community. Looked, dressed and lived amongst us. But on the court they were like warriors, imagine Coach Carter if you have seen it. There training was so focuses and disciplined it was hard not to be drawn to it. They went on to come runners up in Shell Cup – The NSW State Knockout High School Tournament, It’s a longer story for another day but that program saved my life in more ways than one. And I proudly got the opportunity to captain that team in my senior year, despite homelessness, family breakdown and significant disadvantage where we made the top 8 carnival, a great memory.

But what was most significant about it was that it was accessible for all of us, it wasn’t just a community program that casually came in and came out. It had a representative pathway some players went to play at state levels and even professionally. And it was consistent.

So why is this important? It is important because to play a sport like basketball representatively It costs over $600 at some Sydney associations, plus the costs of compulsory participation in local competitions. The costs of participation are inequitable for families from disadvantaged backgrounds and the commitment from families to meet participation requirements is something that is often challenging for families experience complex disadvantage.

Throughout all the years playing, competing in years of representative programs, competing at national tournaments – we never paid a cent!

Many of us talk about this and how if it was an issue there is no way we would have been able to compete. Access is not just financial though. Many services ignore the significance of transport. We had 10 kids on a rep squad, often 7-8 kids would be Glebe kids and NEVER would you see our family at our games, for a combination of reasons. We were ok with that, cause that’s just how it was and we were all cut from the same cloth.

This story is significant in the rise of community sport and mentoring programs for I believe 2 reasons, 1 – all we really needed was the same access and opportunity as the kid sitting next to us – 2. Provided with the right support, structure and consistency all kids can thrive. – this one is more complex and subjective and talks to things like the significance of access to transport, Cultural safety and trauma informed coaching.

But that gives you some background as to our WHY - and how it is critical of us at Impact Policy to leads with our values of ACCESS - EQUITY - INCLUSION AND JUSTICE.

So if you have got this far in this yarn please let me know what you think and welcome to Spark Impact - A movement powered by that purpose. Fuelled by the values of Impact Policy. From little things, big things grow.

#justanotherkidfromGlebe