Helena Abdou
School kids in Hume will benefit from a graffiti prevention program funded by Hume council.
Presenters from Warner Youth Education will visit multiple schools across the municipality to discuss with students the impacts of vandalism.
“They’ll come out and give a presentation on how graffiti prevention affects each kid personally, and in the family and then in the community,” Warner Youth’s education lead Luisa Ferrazzola said.
“We then describe the actual consequences as well, we let the kids know it will affect their future as well.”
It’s explained to the children that a subsequent record would prevent being able to apply for jobs and limit overseas travel, Ms Ferrazzola said.
“I think that hits home, so it sort of teaches them the legalities of it and also how it affects them and their family,” she said.
The program predominantly targets year 5 and 6 pupils and year 7 and 8students.
“We’re getting to them at an age when [we can] prevent them from making these choices and keep the community clean,” Ms Ferrazzola said.
“We go into making choices and how you can say no and be an upstander, and there’s that peer pressure of ‘come on, let’s do it’ then some of those people aren’t really your friends.”
The initiative has been running since the early 2000s when Warner Youth noticed a need for graffiti education programs.
‘With the councils they have a graffiti removal component to their funding, you can call them and say ‘there’s graffiti here’ then there’s an emergency and they have to get rid of it,’ she said.
“They’ve got all that in place, [but] there’s no education side of things and there’s a lack of preventative rather than a reactive side of things.”
Ms Ferrazolla believes education teaches kids to respect themselves and others, positive decision making and the link between choices and consequences.
