Les Twentyman is fighting for the western suburbs and the kids who live in them, trying to make sure they have better chances in life, as Eugene Benson reports.
WHEN discussing his job and his life – two things that are very much entwined
– it’s hard to get a short answer from social worker and community activist Les
Twentyman.
You get the impression he’s seen too much to keep things brief.
To explain the problems and disadvantages in Melbourne’s west, Twentyman
tends not to spout a quick statistic like a politician might. Instead he’ll tell
you a story.
There’s the one about catching a glimpse of cigarette burns and bruises on a
pupil’s arms when he started work as a primary teacher.
He says this, and the pupil’s reluctance to talk about how it happened, is
what drove him out of the classroom and into youth work.
Volunteering for the Sunshine Lions Club one Christmas morning in the early
’80s, delivering toys to needy families is another story.
Given a list of houses to deliver presents to in Braybrook, his home suburb,
Twentyman says he entered a house just around the corner from his own and found
three children sharing the same filthy bed.
There were no parents to be seen, no food anywhere and just a couple of
bottles of beer in the fridge.
‘‘That was when I thought, shit, I’ve been here all my life, been walking
past this house, but had no idea what was beyond those walls.’’
Since 1984 when he took a job as an outreach worker with Sunshine City
Council, Twentyman has been the face of western-suburbs social work.
With an approach to social work that has always seen Twentyman more at home
working with kids on the street rather than talking about it with other social
workers over coffee, he has a detailed knowledge of disadvantage in the west.
As an activist, Twentyman’s dual focus has always been working to end youth
violence in the west and giving school-age kids greater access to youth workers.
This has seem him in a never-ending campaign with local, state and federal
governments seeking funding for education, art and sports programs – anything to
keep youths engaged and off the street.
