PCYC community program & NWSLSC

The PCYC is a non-charitable organisation that run activities for kids of all abillities. They run a Fit For Life Program on Thursday mornings from 7:00am sharp to 8:15am throughout the school term.

Taken from their website: " This program is available to young people of high school age. The session begins with a warm-up, followed by a 30min physical activity determined on the day to suit ability levels of participants. The group is then cooled down with light stretching before cleaning up and participating in a healthy breakfast. Participants then make their way to school. There is a bus service offered to the northern suburbs however seats are limited so we encourage participants to try to arrange their own transport if possible."

As part of the fit-for-life program, a few cops from Wollongong wanted to start up a program with surf lifesaving. Every fortnight, they come down to north gong beach and we do beach activities. I am volunteering fortnightly alongside some police to provide some surf-knowledge and games to youngsters and teens from 3.30-4.30 pm.

It is so amazing that these cops get paid to run these programs. Talking to one of them, Jye, he insighted me on his career in the police force: from drug cases to abuse. He said that high risk kids often have negative opinions of cops. The program is a way to show them a more positive side of the police. The program is a positive engagement for police with the community. It also helps to provide more structure and a positive exampe to their day: showing them what it is like to get up and go to work, how it feels to be active. This is really lovely.

Journal of the program:

The first week was on 21.2.23. This day was quite windy, but we did some flags, beach sprints and wades. The kids loved it!

The second week was 7.3.23, the day was perfect for water activities, but I was told that we need a risk assessment for this. After a few wades, the kids were tired and didn't want to do much else. I got some rackets out and we played with them. Then we did a walk to the rocks on the southern end of NW beach. Pretty chilled time and very positive!

On 16.3.23 the program was changed to Thursday mornings from 7-8am. Dave Merro (the president) came down to help out this week as well, but unfortunetly I forgot about it and did not show up. When I messaged Merro to ask him about the program, he said it was successful with about 15 people showing up compared to 5 on previous occasions. Therefore, they decided to keep it on Thursday mornings.

The following week, 23.3.23, it was a PR day for the program. When I showed up at the beach around 6.50 am, the NWSLSC tent was set up and they were preparing benches for the breakfast. We did about 40 mins of touch-football and relay races - even some members of the U20s St George rugby league team showed up. It was a great morning! Afterwards, I grabbed a board from the surf club and did 40 mins of paddling before heading to work. 100% Thursday mornings worked really well.