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General News

22 March, 2021

PCYC re-opens drop-in centre.

Another tool in the fight against youth crime has been re-launched in Mareeba with the Pulse café reopening after nearly 12 months of hibernation.

By Phil Brandel

Sergeant Mary-Anne West wih kids playing sport at the Pulse Café, Thursday nights at the Mareeba PCYC
Sergeant Mary-Anne West wih kids playing sport at the Pulse Café, Thursday nights at the Mareeba PCYC

Another tool in the fight against youth crime has been re-launched in Mareeba with the Pulse café reopening after nearly 12 months of hibernation.

Pulse café happens at the PCYC every Thursday night from 6 – 8pm as a way of getting youth off the streets, as well as engaging them with local police.

The café had to be stopped in mid-2020 due to COVID restrictions and was relaunched a few weeks ago.  Manager of the PCYC Mareeba Sergeant Mary- Anne West said it had been about 12 months since the café was closed.

“We were doing it the parks, but the kids set they wanted to come back to the PCYC hall,” she said. 

“Here at the hall, we have free Wi-Fi, pool table, table tennis and we also give them a hot feed while they are here.

“This café is aimed at high school-aged kids and last week we had 43 kids which was a great start.”

At the end of the night, Mary-Anne and her staff drive the kids home.

“We now have a program running here on a Wednesday night where younger kids can drop in as its much quieter, on Thursday nights we have the café for high school-aged kids and on Friday nights we go play basketball and fire up the BBQ at Arnold park until it gets too late,” Mary-Anne said.

“If we could get the council to turn on lighting at Arnold Park until late it would also help keep the kids occupied for longer.” 

Mary-Anne said she would also love to open on a Saturday night but said funding was a big issue.

“We are trying to find extra funding, because if we stay open late on a Saturday it impacts wages.”


 

 

 

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