Will Smith – empowering and inspiring youth at risk
Will Smith, with (from left) Obsa, Mickey and Ahmed.
Photo supplied
By Hayley Manning
TASMANIAN CONSTABLE Will Smith has been awarded the 2020 Tasmanian Young Australian of the Year in recognition of his ongoing services with disadvantaged youth in Australia and overseas.
The social justice advocate, 26, began his volunteer journey at 15, when he started helping at Edmund Rice camps for youth at risk, during the school holidays. In 2019, he developed and launched the not-for-profit JCP Empowering Youth program to encourage leadership and motivational skills to participants at camps and school-based seminars.
‘My passion at the moment is inspiring and empowering young people towards leadership. Leadership is about action – a positive action that you take in life. Every young person has leadership capacity and my role is to help people realise what that is.’
The inspiration behind JCP stems from John Pounds (1766–1839), a disabled cobbler who educated, clothed and fed impoverished children in his tiny workshop in Portsmouth, England.
‘An amazing story with awesome elements – shoes – as a meaning behind what we do. We have probably given out $30,000 worth of sporting shoes and boots in the last year which is a bit of a tribute to John “Cobbler” Pounds.’
After discovering the plight of Syrian refugees, Will flew solo to Beirut then travelled to the Mish Mish Mountains – a no-travel zone in June last year – to deliver soccer boots and coordinate a six-week soccer program.
‘Sport is attractive to young people. It is an energy release, its interactive fun but also an opportunity for Syrian refugees. There are not a lot of options for them in their current circumstances, where a negative option is Islamic State recruitment, so it’s trying to create something positive enough to keep their mind busy and instil a bit of hope.
‘Just getting into the danger zone proved a difficult feat. Things got hectic at the checkpoints where I was stripped naked or held at gunpoint by “security services”. Not all checkpoints are run by government, army or official groups, so you have to convince them you are there for the right reasons. A lot of people were confused and wondering “who’s this guy with all the soccer gear”, but it probably saved me a few times!
‘Someone has to do it. The recent COVID-19 situation shows the world can do miraculous things to better the lives of others but these people have been the most at-risk people in the world for the last eight years and we’ve done nothing. I’m not making a massive difference but I am doing something.’
Will credits the Deloraine Football Club for starting him in the right direction. ‘I still vividly remember my coach Malcolm Walters having an impact on me – the terminology he used, I still use today.’
