Safety in Numbers: The Final Report of the St Clair Erskine Park Youth and Community Safety (SCEPtiCS) Project

The St Clair Erskine Park Youth and Community Safety Project is a joint project of the St Clair Erskine Park Youth Partnership, and is auspiced by the Erskine Park Neighbourhood Development Team (NDT). The Youth Partnership consists of representatives from Erskine Park NDT, St Clair Youth Centre, St Clair Community Project, St Marys Area Community Development Project, Penrith City Council, and in the past has had representatives from WESDARC and St Marys Police. St Clair and Erskine Park are relatively new suburban estates situated in the western suburbs of Sydney. Estate development began in the early 1980’s with the aim of providing affordable private housing opportunities, predominately for families with young children. During 1997 acts of vandalism and arson causing damage to community facilities and to other areas of the suburbs were reported regularly. There were also reports of violence between groups of young people in the streets. Simultaneously the perception grew that young people congregating in public spaces were a public threat. The term youth problem became popular to describe these emerging issues, a term which portrayed young people both negatively and as a homogeneous group. These community responses ultimately worked to alienate rather than include young people. Simultaneously during this time the NSW Government introduced legislation giving police (later adopted by Security guards) the power to move on young people if there were more than three in a group together. In combination these events and their interpretation created an environment where community safety became a public and priority issue across the two suburbs. The Youth Partnership, which developed within this conflictual environment, was convened by local community development groups and aimed to address some of these issues from a broader perspective. The Partnership’s immediate challenges were two-fold, firstly to place the issue in a broader context, and secondly to secure support. Following an early attempt to consult with young people in the area, it became apparent that a comprehensive research project which involved young people in the process was crucial and could not be achieved with current limited resources. Subsequently in 1999, following some unsuccessful attempts, the Partnership was successful in obtaining funds from the NSW Department of Urban Affairs & Planning to undertake this research project, and the NDT Erskine Park agreed to act as auspice for the funds. In July 2000 the NDT engaged a researcher from University of Western Sydney (UWS) to conduct the 12-month project. The researcher has also utilised a range of students on placement to work on the project. The UWS Ethics Review Committee approved the project (Protocol No 2000/045), and the Youth Partnership acts a steering committee to the researchers. According to the Project Brief, the purpose of the research project was to identify issues that lead to concerns of public safety, by consulting and working with young people within the context of the wider community in the St Clair and Erskine Park areas. The project was also to work with young people and other stakeholders to develop strategies to overcome these concerns and contribute to sustainable change for the whole community. The research included identification of some demographic data and a review of relevant literature. However, the prime focus of the research was to consult directly with young people, specifically focusing on their perspectives of what is community safety and why young people do unsafe things.