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At the age of 14, Glen Green says he was “a very angry young man” and on the verge of getting into serious trouble and joining a youth gang.
“I had been expelled from school and was going down the wrong path,” he says.
However, Glen, now aged 53, took a different path and went on to receive numerous awards from Council and community, culminating in the NZ Order of Merit, in 2018.
What turned things around for him was intervention by youth workers, and the building of a public basketball court.
“The first thing the youth workers did was nail a hoop to a post,” he says. “Basketball was big at the time, linked to American culture. A group of us started playing and we learned some discipline, had fun and were not hurting anyone else. We had found something to aim for and get better at.”
He went on to write to Auckland City Council, asking for a proper basketball court where youth could play – and says six months later the trucks rolled in and a full-sized court was built.
Council gave him a Good Citizen Award. “That’s when I realised how powerful community can be, working together,” Glen says.
Glen, who now lives in Army Bay, went on to work as a community constable, where he saw a lot of youth crime.
“I felt like I was arresting myself,” he says. “What those young people were facing was all too familiar.”
Pointing young people in the right direction is a passion for him. He formed a charitable trust called There’s a Better Way, Hoops & Hope, and eventually left the police to continue that work.
“So, in 2010, I started building basketball courts instead of taking people to court!” he says.
The trust recently built its eighth court, obtaining support from Council and companies like Fulton Hogan and Airtime Hoops.
It was this model – using public basketball courts as an intervention for youth crime – that Glen put before the Hibiscus & Bays Local Board last month.
He wants to upgrade the local courts, and build new ones, to create a total of six full sized courts in Ōrewa, Stanmore Bay and Gulf Harbour. His aim is to have the project complete within three years, with community, Council, grant funders and business support.
He says since moving to the Coast, two years ago, he has seen the start of the enticement of youth into gang culture, recognising the signs from his time in Police.
“It’s easy for teens to get influenced and caught up in gangs and crime if you don’t have a solid foundation,” he says. “Sport is great in general, but basketball works with youth because it’s cool, there’s lots of music around it and the American NBA is massive. So why not utilise that for positive change?”
Glen says building and extending courts on the Coast needs to be a community project.
He started by receiving support from the local board, which heartily endorsed his vision at its June 27 meeting.
Glen says he can now take the next step, of seeking funding and sponsorship support for building more Coast courts.
For more information, or to support the project, visit https://theresabetterwaynz.com/
