Despite the chilly conditions keeping crowd numbers lower than hoped, Saturday’s Vibes in the Valley youth festival has received plenty of positive feedback.
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The festival organised by Far South Coast Police in conjunction with PCYC and local Rotary clubs among others, was a way to get the region’s youth engaged with police and other support services – and to that end it achieved its goal.
PCYC youth case manager Senior Constable Sarah Bancroft said an estimated 200 high school-aged kids attended the festival throughout the afternoon and night.
“Our main aim was to saturate the Kids Helpline number and every one of those kids now has a wrist band, or headset, or the photos from the photo booth with the number on it, so we definitely achieved that aim,” she said.
Senior Constable Bancroft said 200 was great for the first time an event like this has been run in the area.
“These kids usually only see me, so to show them other police officers across the state are doing the same thing was great – they were really engaging well with the police there, who were playing bubble soccer with them, running foot races, talking to them all day.
“It was really refreshing and I’ve had a lot of positive feedback, which is fantastic.”
Senior Constable Bancroft said the hope is now to get the region’s students more heavily involved in organising future events.
“We’ve shown them what’s achievable, now we want them to run with it – fully supported by us.”
Anyone keen to be part of a committee driving future youth-focused events in the region can contact Sarah Bancroft on 0429 599 585.