Kay Mongoo is frank as she explains what is happening with the young people in her home town: "The kids are hungry and so they just go into the shops and steal".
She is part of a newly formed foot patrol designed to help keep the kids of Carnarvon out of trouble and find them a bite to eat.
The Carnarvon Community Patrol (CCP) is only in its second week of operation, but already Ms Mongoo felt positive about the initiative in the West Australian town.
"We just explained to the kids what we're doing and, you know, they'll come up for yarn," she said.
"Two at a time, we walk around in the main areas of town where the kids hang out.
"We're moving them along, moving them off the streets."
The foot patrol is funded by the Aboriginal Biodiversity Conservation (ABC) Foundation and is working in partnership with a bus service provided by the Shire of Carnarvon.
"The kids are all over the place these days so the shire picks them up and takes them to their own homes," Ms Mongoo said.
"We walk around the CBD area and then if we've got a group of kids that need to go home, we'll ring the bus and they'll come and get them."
The CCP operates four nights a week from about 6pm onwards and Ms Mongoo said it was also providing a new employment pathway for parents.
"There's a couple of unemployed people that we want to start, so we can help build them up as well," she said.
Community calling for a youth space
Concerned locals have long been calling for a youth safe space or safe house to be created in Carnarvon.
"We want to try and get a building where we can take the kids that will have someone cooking a meal, we'll have games and TV, and things for the kids to keep them inside," Ms Mongoo said.
Andrea Musulin is the managing director of Carnarvon Family Support Service and said an overnight safe space for young people was a gap in the services available in town.
"In establishing a youth accommodation centre, it would be only overnight accommodation or emergency accommodation," she said.
"It's by no means a residential care facility, and we are by no means wishing to take people's children from them.
"It would be about providing them with a safe place, feeding them, washing their clothes, and possibly sending them off to school the next morning."
Ms Musulin believed there could easily be a collaboration with the Police and Community Youth Centre (PCYC) and the other government organisations that were working in this space.
"I think we could have a really good go of it and I think we could we could make a big impact," she said.
She said there was a draft proposal for a youth space that had been sent to the government for funding consideration.
Positive response so far
Ms Mongoo said word was still spreading about the new Carnarvon Community Patrol but reactions so far had been positive.
"The community's been helpful even though the majority of people still don't know about it," she said.
"But we just talk to the people we come in contact with, you know, while we're doing it."
Helen Slater is the CEO at the ABC Foundation and said it was great to see all the different parties working together to tackle youth issues.
She said the program was funded through the ABC Foundation's Containers for Change scheme and would be ongoing.
Hope for the future
While out on her first few patrols, Ms Mongoo decided to approach a nearby petrol station to see if they had any leftover food to donate.
She left with an overflowing bag and drove around handing out food to kids roaming the streets.
Ms Mongoo said she was always there to support Carnarvon's young people.
"l really feel sorry for them, they're hungry all the time," she said.
"I don't have much money myself but I buy the kids a feed and sit with them.
"A lot of them don't have good home lives."
Ms Mongoo said a youth space would help get parents to come along and cook a meal for their children.
"We need to try and get the parents involved with it all because we will be too old soon, we will be ready to retire and let some new ones take over."
