In a move supported by Mayor Peter Chin, Hoani Karetai (17), Miracle Hapi (17), Tara Thomas (23) and Rory Campbell (23) have arranged for a hui on neutral ground tomorrow.
The hui, which will have no police involvement, will attempt to agree on a range of activities for young people which would direct their energies away from violence.
The initiative was spurred by fears among elders and young people themselves, that the Dunedin situation was spiralling out of control.
The group said the tension between crews - groups of youths, usually with a name and loosely associated by family or interest, for example, hip-hop or rapping - was escalating, and fights between them were becoming increasingly common.
Instead of standing back and watching, Mr Karetai, Miss Hapi, Miss Thomas and Mr Campbell started up a crew they called Off Tha Streets (OTS) aimed at doing something about the problem.
Mr Chin said he had become involved after some elders from the Elim Church and community workers had contacted him with their concerns about the increasing violence.
He said he supported the OTS crew in its attempts to address an issue that had ‘‘the potential to blow out of all proportion''.
Mr Campbell said since late last year there was more fighting between Dunedin crews, attacks on people from other crews, tagging of city property and crime, mainly because the young people involved had ‘‘nothing else to do''.
‘‘Everyone's going to court, people are going to jail . . . It's just time to stop.
‘‘Soon we're going to be going to a funeral and that's something we don't want . . . It's time to change.''
Dunedin police iwi liaison officer Senior Constable Toni Pelasio said police were aware of increased assaults and unprovoked street violence among young people in recent months and welcomed the group's efforts to try to remedy the problem.
‘‘We are rapt with these young people getting off their own backsides and doing something about it.''
Mr Campbell believed there were ‘‘at least'' 200 people aged between 13 and 24 in about 16 different crews in the city. Many still went to school, but others had left or been expelled.
The OTS crew decided the best way to make a change was to get representatives from the crews together to discuss alternative activities in which they would like to take part.
Some of the ideas they had come up with so far included more education, such as training or apprenticeships, and starting sports, dancing and/or hip-hop competitions, finding more places for young people to do graffiti with permission, and establishing a youth centre where people could hang out and ‘‘do stuff''.
‘‘It's basically getting [the crews] keen about something that's not violence,'' Miss Hapi said.
Once they had come up with some solid ideas, they would approach the mayor and other key organisations for help.
Acknowledging that other people had tried to get a youth centre or something similar set up before, he hoped OTS had a better chance of success because its members were the same age and knew most people in the crews, Mr Campbell said
‘‘A few of them think ‘Oh my god. Somebody's actually doing something about it and this time it's not an adult yelling at us',' Miss Hapi said.
The Off Tha Streets hui will be held in the Otaru Room on the second floor of the Dunedin City Council building at 4pm tomorrow, and is open to people from all of the Dunedin crews.
