Story: Gangs

Larry Potae, a 49-year-old grandfather of eight, helps out at the Awhi Early Childhood Centre in Ōtara, Auckland, in 2006. Twenty members of the 'Notorious' chapter of the Mongrel Mob had helped build and paint the centre, as well as creating carvings and doing landscaping work. As they got older and had families, some gang members tried to break their cycle of serving jail time so they would not be separated from their families. Voluntary work and employment schemes helped to keep some from a life of crime.