By Jordan McMullen

Originally published on thechangemakersproject.com here: http://thechangemakerproject.com/2015/02/03/catch-me-if-you-can/

LOGAN police and Woodridge High’s Indigenous youth have bonded over three touch football matches, but it’s what has happened off the pitch that leaves Origin great Petero Civinoceva applauding.

Catch Me If You Can, a program created by Marty Ermer and Cheyann Beard, is directed at creating a stronger relationship between the Indigenous students at Woodridge High and the local Logan police.

TUNNEL VISION: Police and Woodridge students in the tunnel at Suncorp Staidum prior to the third State of Origin.

Marty said the idea was to get the two groups to bond over three touch football matches that were planned the same Wednesday as the three State of Origin matches.

The students also played a curtain-raiser at the final State of Origin match at Suncorp Stadium.

“We thought if we planned the touch matches the same day as State of Origin, more students would want to get involved because of the excitement surrounding the games themselves,” he said.

The first match was played on May 28, and former Bronco and Origin great Petero Civoniceva joined the students and officers to officially commemorate the kick off.

Although the match was the main spectacle of the day, Petero said the most important part of the program was the one-on-one time the Woodridge students would get with the police officers.

“It’s all about building stronger relationships and breaking down stereotypes.

When a young person can identify with police officers on a personal level, they take ownership of their behaviour and they respond to being a community member,” the rugby league legend said.

“It definitely helps towards breaking down any preconceived ideas of what a police officer is all about, and see the human side of who they are.”

Marty and Cheyann said this is exactly the message they want to broadcast to the students at Woodridge.

LEAGUE GREAT: Former Brisbane Broncos star Petero Civoniceva supported the Catch Me If You can program in Logan recently.

“It’s all about interaction.

“We wanted the police and the students to interact because there has always been a divide based on their attitudes and perceptions.

“We thought if the police and students can get to bond and know each other, we can make these attitudes and perceptions more accurate and challenge the stereotypes,” Marty said.

To facilitate this interaction there was a series of icebreakers before the game – ‘speed yarning’ being the highlight.

Speed yarning, Marty and Cheyann’s version of speed dating, gave all the students an opportunity to talk one on one with the police officers for a short amount of time.

“Basically the students all had a sheet of questions that they got to ask the police officers.

The questions were aimed at some basic personal information and stuff the students might want to know about the police,” he said.

As the students got to talk to the police officers, Cheyann said the tension was gone nearly immediately, and the students really enjoyed talking to the officers.

“They were so enthusiastic. It was great because the students were so keen to ask more questions they kept saying ‘one more minute, just one more minute’ as we were forcing them to move on.”

Keiryn Dermody, held similar thoughts about the success of the ‘speed yarning’.

“One of the key parts of this program for me is the speed yarning. It really breaks down the barriers. It creates a familiarity between the police and the students that isn’t forced,” Constable Dermody said.

“What I saw today was a couple of seconds of shyness that was quickly transformed into laughter and talking, and I thought wow – the barrel has been broken.”

She said that it is through this sort of communication that the Queensland Police Service(QPS) will achieve its goal for Catch Me If You Can – improved community engagement.

“It’s all about community engagement,” she said.

“We’ve (QPS) long recognised that for proper law enforcement you’ve got to have  community support,” she said.

“We want to build community relations both with our Indigenous community and our local community generally.”

Constable Dermody said that a friendly game of touch was a perfect way to end the day.

“Sport is always, has always, been a great way for people to engage with each other. I really hope the students enjoy it,” she said.