 School is still hours away but the kids of Mornington Island are sitting down to a valuable lesson in life skills. Having breakfast, all 50 of them. For some, this will be their only meal of the day. There's been levels of tragedy and sadness that probably seldom experienced in the mainstream community. Three years ago, kids like these were killing themselves and turning to crime as a way of life. Then Police Sergeant Dave Ives arrived and set about fixing the problem. A lot of the kids being unsupervised on the street late at night, not getting to bed until maybe two or three o'clock in the morning. With some willing helpers, they've become de facto parents, teaching the kids right from wrong. At the end of the day, that the kids no matter what know that there's somebody here that really cares for them. The plan was simple. School is a must but once it's over, it's game on back at the PCYC. The boys spend hours playing sport, burning up energy while in another room the girls are doing crafts. Lovely little kids, beautiful little kids. Sometimes their parents think they're naughty but they're not naughty at the PCYC. Into the night, it's noodle hockey but there are movie nights, discos and rules. No swearing, no fighting. Parents are being educated too about how to look after their children. In some cases, just how to feed them. The turnaround has been staggering. By simply giving these kids something to do, there hasn't been one commit suicide and crime, well, what crime? This is not rocket science. As I said, you take any group of intelligent, fun loving kids and you give them nothing to do. Well, the boredom is the recipe to disaster. A disaster now averted, a generation saved thanks to the work of people like Sergeant Dave Ives. Tony Fabris, 9 News.