Twelve remote communities and almost 300 kids participated in today's Off the Hook fishing competition - a Police driven community engagement initiative for youth and Police stationed at remote communities.
Youth aged between 5 - 25 years old from the communities of Alpurullum, Bulman, Gunbulunya, Mataranka, Milingimbi, Minjilang, Minyerri, Numbulwar, Peppimenarti, Ramingining, Warruwi and Yarralin spent the morning fishing, each vying to bring in the biggest fish in their community.
Superintendent Andrew Warton said the Off the Hook initiative is about building strong relationships between police and youth and, about encouraging open communication.
"There is a strong emphasis for remote policing to drive and facilitate community engagement activities, such as Off the Hook, to strengthen relationships at a local level.
"Recreational angling is the fastest growing sport in Australia and provides participants with the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and appreciate and learn about the marine environment. It also provides the youth and police with the opportunity to share angling skills and use the time to talk openly and casually away from the daily pressures of life" said Supt Warton.
Supt Warton said that this is the second Off the Hook competition which has taken place in the last six months.
"The pilot competition took place in December last year with five communities and around 90 youth participating. It was extremely popular with those communities that participated, so it's great to see numbers almost triple for the second competition.
"We've received a lot of support from Elders, parents and school teachers in the community, who came down and helped supervise and got involved on the day. Many of the community stores also got involved and donated bread, meat and other BBQ items" he said.
Whilst the initiative was originally created through Task Force Themis (The Northern Territory Police response to the Federal intervention), the initiative has now spread to other remote police stations and is hoped to continue to grow further.
Media contact:
Natalie Bell
0427 660 594
