City’s youth cadets conquer the great outdoors

22 May 2018

The City’s Metro Police Department put 39 of its youth cadets through their paces this past weekend during an overnight camp at the Zandvlei Resort in Muizenberg.

Since its inception in 2013, the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police Department’s youth camp programme has ensured that some 3 000 of youth from all over Cape Town are able to participate in these camps that focus specifically on life skills and leadership. Learners who excel at the camps and display positive behaviour changes are given the opportunity to be drafted into the youth cadets – a programme designed to counter negative social influences by promoting personal development and leadership skills.

Activities at the weekend camp included a team challenge where team spirit and teamwork were encouraged. A presentation with an educational focus on nature conservation and water preservation was delivered as well as an endurance hike to encourage teamwork and assess leadership skills.

‘This programme builds resilience in the young people who participate. It also improves their career prospects in the long term, possibly with the City but also in other sectors. More than that, it encourages critical thinking and makes them more responsible and responsive members of their communities.

We need to build stronger communities and young people are the key. Recently, the Metro Police Department arrested a 13-year-old boy who is allegedly a shooter for a gang in Hanover Park.

Programmes like the youth cadets and other initiatives run by many hardworking NGOs are in a race to get to young people before they are recruited by the gangs. There is a tough road ahead, but the goal is to instil positive values so that these cadets can become agents of change and develop as mentors and role-models in their communities so that they can affect other young people’s beliefs and possibly change their entire outlook on life,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security; and Social Services, Alderman JP Smith.

This youth programme is in line with the City’s Organisational Development and Transformation Plan as a City that is responsive to the needs of its youth.

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