Mick Fuller’s innovative new plan to help Aboriginal youngsters

Top cop Mick Fuller says NSW Police is helping Aboriginal teens “for the first time”. And he has new statistics to back that claim up.

Students Shania Flint, Tenisha-Ann Brooks and Toyah Fenton present a mural to NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.  Picture: Toby Zerna

NSW Police has helped almost 500 vulnerable teens – many of them Aboriginal – achieve full-time employment thanks to an innovative new program aimed at giving them a fair go, the state’s top cop has revealed.

As part of NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller’s RISEUP plan, the Fit Together program is a cooperative approach with PCYC designed to help young Indigenous people by teaching them job skills and keeping them connected to their culture.

Mr Fuller went to Bankwest Stadium this week to meet with some of the program’s recent graduates, who gave him an Indigenous mural they had made with elders which he will proudly hang on a wall at NSW Police’s Parramatta headquarters to remind officers about the importance of diverting young people away from crime.

Mr Fuller says almost 500 young people have gained employment thanks to the RISEUP program who otherwise would have fallen into crime. Picture: Toby Zerna

He told The Daily Telegraph the entire RISEUP program had helped almost 500 young people, many of them with Aboriginal backgrounds, get jobs who otherwise would have already had a brush with the justice system.

“It is so important for us that we have a great working relationship with every community across NSW and the Indigenous population is obviously the first community,” Mr Fuller said.

“Over the years, we’ve had a complex relationship and there is still much work to be done.

“But I think RISEUP shows evidence, particularly to the Aboriginal elders, that we’re helping kids on a positive pathway – for the first time.”

Since the launch of RISEUP, 488 young people have gained employment despite the challenges presented by the economic climate.

Other outcomes of the RISEUP programs include better school attendance, life skills and a shift in attitudes towards police.

Mr Fuller said he was impressed with the calibre of the young people he met at the graduation ceremony, including four who‘d gone into trades including bricklaying and panel beating.

“They were just great young guys who probably on their own admissions were probably lost and destined for a life of crime,“ he said.

“For me, most importantly, there’s almost 500 kids that we’ve got into full time employment who probably otherwise would have gone into the justice system.”

Mr Fuller said the aim of the RISEUP program was to give kids from disadvantaged backgrounds a fair go.

“I think the key for me was if you give any kid a chance, which is an education, some decent health outcomes and an opportunity for employment, then they will go on and achieve amazing things – I don’t think it was anything more complex than that,” he said.

“The RISEUP program was really about giving kids just a simple pathway.”

Western Sydney girl Rebecca King, 14, who helped do the mural during the Fit Together program, said it was exciting to meet Mr Fuller.

“I love my culture because it’s so different from other cultures,” she said.

“I’m planning to go to university and probably study law.”