Police & Community Youth Clubs (Pcyc)
Community Service in Blacktown

We prosper their skills, character and leadership. We decrease and prohibit crime by and against young people. It was a partnership forged with the community via Rotary to provide young people with a safe and sure alternative to the streets. Today, we operate more than 60 clubs and centers through the state, with more than 85,00 members and more than 140 different activities one of the largest youth organizations in Australia. William John Mackay was born in Scotland in 1885, and had grown up on the streets, in the industrial squalor of 19th century Glasgow. And as a teenager, Bill Mackay discovered that the only places he could meet his friends was out on the streets. There were no organized games, activities or sound places. In 1936, William Mackay, as the fresh MSW Commissioner of Police, traveled overseas with a short of reviewing the methods of combating crime. In Norwich, England, he found a Police Boys Club that gave young people an opportunity to overcome some of the disabilities of their tough environment. On his return to MSW, he took the superior of these schemes and, at a Sydney Rotary Club lunch, assembled Rotarian for their support: To raise funds to bear apropos places where lads, brought up in industrial areas, could meet, play engage in sport, giving them a chance in life, and preventing them becoming street corner loafers. The Rotarian responded to the Commissioner, and there was a drive for funds to launch the first Police Boys Club. They secured agreement that a disused Police lockup in Woolloomooloo would become the beginning Police boy’s club, with the government paying for the cost of converting the buildings, and Rotary responsible for the cost of equipment, libraries and furniture. Where four boys of the age of these lads are on the one day charged with such a serious offense it appears to me that it is time the Police Department took some steps to deter them from malpractices of this nature by encouraging them to indulge in sporting and Club activities, he wrote. At the Club, Sylvia Chase, the librarian, and a Mrs Nichols, a constable’s wife, would serve the boys' tea and biscuits. The widowed Mrs Chase spent 22 years, at the Club every night, handing out books, easy drinks and biscuits which she also provided. Today, our Police youth case managers labor closely with other agencies, like the departments of community services and education and communities, taking a holistic approach to the needs and problems of each young person. PCYC means less truancy, less crime and more young people feeling better about themselves, and more hopeful and socially capable. Once obvious as the Police Boys Club, PCYC facilities today are a center for all ages and the community. All our clubs give fun, fitness and friendship, where all can enjoy a wide range of sports, arts and recreational activities, in a safe environment.