Lynn Lau
Northern News Services

Fort McPherson (Nov 25/02) - Getting teens out of trouble means keeping them involved.

It's a community effort in Fort McPherson.

Police do their part by working with teens who cause trouble.

"You find out what they enjoy, why they're getting into trouble, and you get them more involved," said RCMP Sgt. Kurt Lozinski.

By targeting individuals, Lozinski said it can be possible to prevent a culture of youth violence from taking hold.

"Sometimes you find out they're upset about something, you work with them to get over some of the hurdles, said Lozinski. It raises their self esteem and it really cuts down on a lot of the crimes."

Helping problem children can be as easy as giving them a lift when they're walking on the streets, connecting them with job openings or even helping them write resumes.

Police league hockey

Another tactic to control youth violence is the popular youth league hockey team organized by RCMP volunteers.

"We spend a lot of time with hockey -- up to five times a week," said Lozinski. "It causes the kids to be extremely tired and go home to sleep instead of going out and maybe getting in trouble."

The team raises money and travels to Edmonton once a year to compete. Kids who play know they'll be suspended from the team if they get in trouble with the law.

"They know it's a privilege to be on the team. If they're involved in any crime, they know they'll be suspended from it and that hurts."

In recent years, the detachment has been focusing more on youth intervention, and Lozinski says he's already seen it have an effect on reducing teen violence.

Hot breakfasts

At Chief Julius School, the three-year-old crime prevention program has been tackling youth violence in several ways.

The federally-funded pilot project runs with three staff based at the school, offering on-the-land trips, after-school sports and programming.

According to project manager Johnny Kaye, sometimes improving behaviour is as simple as making sure kids start their day with a good breakfast.

With the help of community volunteers, donations and other funding, the crime prevention program has been serving up daily breakfasts for the last two years.

"With our hot breakfast program, the students were coming to school earlier, attendance was up, being late was minimum," said Kaye. "After the breakfast program started, teachers noticed the students came to class ready to get into their school work."

This year, funding has been tight, and the school will only be offering cold meals like cereal. It's a start, but Kaye is hoping to have the hot breakfast program running again soon if funds come through later this year.