When Jemma McLeay and her team started a drop-in centre for Aboriginal young people earlier this year, their aims were simple: feed the youth, give them a safe space and reduce crime rates.
"And somehow, it's just worked," the Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer (ACLO) said.
Ms McLeay and her colleagues at Port Stephens Hunter Police District run the program as part of the statewide U-NITES initiative by PCYC. It intends to get young people off the streets on Friday or Saturday nights, which are typically high crime times.
The program - which is visited by around 50 people each week - is supported by Aboriginal aunties from Wahroonga Aboriginal Corporation. Over time, youth have come to trust the adults at the centre and crime rates have dropped.
"I take a fair bit of pride in that," Ms McLeay said. "Who would have ever thought the kids would think an ACLO, a police youth officer and a couple of Aboriginal aunties were a safe space for them?"
Wahroonga Aboriginal Corporation had never "had a relationship with police" before the program started.
And ten months into her role as an ACLO, Ms McLeay has been awarded the Irene Juergens Fellowship Award (unsworn) as part of the annual Rotary police awards.
Her success in this role is a far cry from her previous job as an office manager for a construction company, but as a Worimi woman with a heart for community, Ms McLeay's family encouraged her to go for the job.
"I took the chance at being able to help make a difference for my mob," she said.
ACLOs work in more than 35 police stations across the state, where they help create positive relationships between police and Aboriginal people.
For Ms McLeay, every day is different. Sometimes she attends school suspension meetings or doctors appointments. Other times, it is as simple as taking a student to school each day or teaching them how to grocery shop.
Despite the diversity in her role, each task is marked by a gentle persistence. Trust has been grown over many months and through her work, Ms McLeay as seen youth crime rates, particularly around Raymond Terrace, lower.
"[A lot of the time], I work with at-risk youth on a one-on-one basis. Whatever they need me to be, I am," she said. "You see the gap and you fill it.
"Some of these kids haven't had another negative reaction with police since. It's all been positive.
"They know they've got me there but they also know I'm firm when they need me to be firm," Ms McLeay said. "One of the first things I told my colleagues was, 'never promise these kids or Elders something you can't deliver'. That's been a big thing - we don't make promises we can't fulfill."
"Thinking outside the square and using a grass roots approach, I think, has helped me form a genuine connection with my colleagues and the service providers and the rest of the local Aboriginal community," Ms McLeay said.
The unsworn officer said she would not be able to create a difference without the keen support of her colleagues, particularly youth officer and senior constable Leanne Mann who helped start the program at PCYC.
Constable Mann was a finalist for the Police Officer of the Year Award.
