Emerge founder Jen Shaw said the community must help young people who fall into crime

Emerge founder Jen Shaw said if the community wants to stop kids stealing vehicles it must act and not, “wait for them to have a car accident and hope for an epiphany.”

The solution to Toowoomba’s youth crime problem is clear for Emerge founder Jen Shaw.

For seven years she has been to work. She has watched kids from some of the most traumatic upbringings imaginable turn their lives around and become upstanding members of the community.

The key to that success is giving every child a warm, safe place to live, putting food in their belly then slowly and methodically replacing a sense of identity that glorifies crime with one that celebrates generosity.

“It takes a village to raise a child and we have to step in and be those caregivers, for the children and their parents,” she said.

Her plea for holistic approach comes after Keyhill Gibbs, 13, died from injuries he suffered when the stolen car he was travelling in rolled on the Warrego Highway on Monday.

The crash also put a 14-year-old boy in intensive care and another two in police custody.

Since starting her youth work, Ms Shaw has been waiting for the day one of the children in the Emerge network died while messing around with stolen cars.

She said news of Keyhill’s death would make some young offenders think twice, but for many, stealing cars has become an addiction that reinforces a warped identity that was beaten into them by a harsh family life.

Emerge founder Jen Shaw. Picture: Kevin Farmer

“It is in our DNA to look to our caregivers to show us what is right and wrong but for some kids, their caregivers are not showing them the right way, usually because the caregivers were not shown the right way. We are talking about generational trauma,” she said.

“If you are watching your parents do crime, do drugs and make really bad choices then that is a really hard ‘normal’ to break.”

The result is that stealing cars and abusing drugs become a fast track to social status among peers.

Mr Shaw said this status is strengthened by posting videos of criminal exploits online.

“When they start that cycle it becomes an identity,” she said

“It is a terrible identity but we all need one and if you can’t get it in a positive way, you’ll get it in a negative way.”

Those online videos lead to instant praise from other offenders and make young people feel accepted.

Keyhill Robert Gibbs died from his injuries about a day after the stolen car he was travelling in rolled on the Warrego Highway.

Sadly Ms Shaw said that was often the first time the young people involved have felt accepted.

“They also get attention from the public,” she said.

“When you are growing up and you start doing those ***** things, or people tell you are a ****, naughty or bad, you get to a point where you say, ‘Okay, that’s what I am, I’ll act like it.’”

To break the cycle Ms Shaw said the community must support young people from the first time they start to falter.

This includes supporting their parents.

Emerge has made it work but takes years of sustained effort to change their behaviour.

“We knew every kid that was in that car and every service in Toowoomba has touched them at some point, so how have they fallen through the cracks?”

“Let’s take the five toughest kids in Toowoomba and work out as a community what they need, then make it happen, because we are the adults.

“We can’t wait for them to have a car accident and hope for an epiphany.”