Mingle mob rolls back into town
More than 30 Hedland youths were returned safely to their homes on Thursday night as the Mingle Mob bus service returned to the streets.
The Youth Involvement Council program, which ran out of funding in February, was able to kick off again thanks to a $50,000 grant from the IBN Corporation.
Mingle Mob acting co-ordinator Kristal-Kareen Wyllie said about 30 children and teenagers used the service on the first night back, which she described as a quiet one.
“Most of the kids came from the skate park, and we patrolled the parks and schools around South Hedland as well,” she said.
“It was a pretty quiet one for a Thursday night, but we’re coming into the summer and warmer nights now, so it will get busier.”
Ms Wyllie, a YIC caseworker who is overseeing Mingle Mob until funding for a full time co-ordinator can be found, said the streets were safer because the service had started again.
“It may have been a quiet night by our standards, but that’s 30 kids that would have been walking home otherwise,” she said.
“We got them home safely and that’s what we’re here to do. As long as the funding keeps going and the bus stays out there, the whole community will be better off.”
South Hedland resident Tabarena Waddaman said it was a great moment for everyone in the town that the bus had returned.
Mrs Waddaman, an elderly diabetic woman, told the North West Telegraph in April about nights she was forced to walk the streets to take children home after the bus service stopped.
She said her family would be safer now Mingle Mob was back. The bus will patrol South Hedland every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night between 6pm and 10pm.
