Mingle Mob bus will be back

Hedland's Mingle Mob bus service will be back on the streets in just weeks after a $50,000 donation from Aboriginal corporation IBN.

The youth patrol’s services ceased in February due to a lack of funding, and the Youth Involvement Council has searched far and wide ever since for money to resume the program.

Last week IBN, the entity for the Innawonga, Nyarparli and Banjima people, announced it would offer the large sum of money to support the youth of Hedland.

YIC manager Vicki-Tree Stephens said while there still was not enough money to employ a coordinator or run at full capacity, patrols would be back on the streets in two to four weeks.

“Most of the money we need is for wages to pay the workers who stamp the streets when most of us have signed off for the day and all the real fun begins,” she said.

“This will mean Hedland’s youth will once again have trusting adults they can turn to for help, a safe ride home from the CBD, role models to encourage positive behaviour and engagement and a link to sporting associations.

“The team will aim to resolve and reduce anti-social and criminal activity, address volatile substance, alcohol and drug use and (provide) a caring eye for all those youth who are out at night.”

IBN chief executive Grant Bussell said resuming the Mingle Mob service would help not just the children, but the wider community, from suffering greater problems in the future.

“There is considerable poverty in our community and families that are suffering from complex sets of issues that has rendered them helpless and in some cases allows kids not to go to school,” he said.

“(This service) will give them a connection to a community that cares about them.”