Since 2006 Steve has been a board member and founder of an organisation known as Midnight Basketball Australia and a member of the Midnight Basketball Australia Fund.
Midnight Basketball Australia is an eight-week program for ‘at-risk’ youth aged between 12-18 years, that combines competitive team sport with educational workshops that teach important life skills. Midnight Basketball helps neighbourhoods support at-risk and marginalised teenagers. The program transforms lives and helps break down barriers within communities. The program brings together stakeholders including youth agencies, schools, police, local Chambers of Commerce, voluntary organisations, volunteers, parents and many others who work to build the foundations for a confident and resilient identity and promising future for their youth.
The program runs on Saturday nights when many of these young people may find themselves otherwise at risk of harm or potentially dangerous situations and when other community services are not available.
Midnight Basketball has the motto, 'No Workshop, No Jumpshot' which means all players must attend the life skills workshop that is run on the night in order to play basketball. Players must attend the life-skills workshops run each week in order to participate in the basketball competition. Building on essential life skills, these workshops deal with real and relevant issues for these youth, from health and wellbeing, substance abuse and anger control, to financial literacy and job readiness.
Since the launch of the first tournament in Redfern in 2006, the success of the program has seen Midnight Basketball expand nationally.
For further information about Midnight Basketball Australia see
http://www.midnightbasketball.org.au/Pages/Home.aspxSteve has played an integral role in Midnight Basketball Australia. From attending board meetings to attending training sessions, Steve has always ensured that he had an intellectual and a physical presence. Over the past 16 years Steve has enjoyed engaging with Midnight Basketball participants.
From 1998 to 2008 Steve was a director of Indigenous Festivals Australia (IFA) and a director of the charitable arm of the organisation, The Croc Foundation. IFA produced a number of festivals, known as “Croc Festival” throughout Australia.
IFA was a non-profit organisation aiming to decrease antisocial norms and influence attitudes toward alcohol, tobacco and other drug use helping young people make informed decisions about their use; contribute to the reconciliation process both within Indigenous communities and between all Australians; assist in the improvement of literacy and numeracy of students; provide the opportunity for students in rural and remote areas to come together and meet students from other remote and regional areas; and teach in a positive reinforcing way that excellence is achieved through application of creativity, hard work, enthusiasm and cooperation. It is an innovative event that builds partnerships in regional and remote communities by celebrating youth culture. Croc festivals were designed to provide indigenous children with the motivation to continue at school as well as developing their skills to enhance their self-esteem and to perform in festivals, which were fun, and in an alcohol and tobacco free environment.
The Croc Festival was a series of youth events that ran from July to September. It involved seven or eight three-day festivals a year, in regional and remote areas that have large numbers of Indigenous children. In 2002, the Croc Festival was held in seven different locations in remote and rural NSW, Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria. Over 7,000 students from 200 schools attended one of the seven Croc Festivals supported by over 1,000 teacher supervisors in 2002.
Steve attended many of the Croc Festivals personally where he ran educational services, hosted VIPs and special guests and generally assisted in the management of each festival. When he was attending the festivals Steve would often bring his two sons with him to work with management in performing various tasks and integrate with the Indigenous children.