Kim,
Our experience on the West Side in San Antonio. Im not saying that this happens to all but to give you a perspective on what could be happening.
1. They are trading the bikes. - Like adults, kids get bored of their bikes and they start trading their bikes for others with their firends. Once the notice that the one they trades is not in good condition, they come back to us for another bike. They fear that if they tell us that they traded the bike we will not let them participate in the program again and they tell us that someone stole it. How do we know. We conduct follow up interviews with the parent and they tell us what happended.
2. Most of our kids live in small apartments and parent will not let them keep the bikes inside the house. They leave them out and of course, someone will come by and take it. In this situation there is little you could do.
3. Sadly but true, some of our kids parents pawn them and sell them to get a beer. They are so embarassed to tell us that telling us it got stolen is a better option.
WHAT TO DO.
This has worked for us. You want to look at your kids and see if it applies.
1. We beleive them - we assume that they are telling the truth and help them out.
2. We have loaner bikes - We have a higher demand of black and dark color bmx bikes and less demand on pink and purple. So we duck tape the Pink and Purple Bikes and offer them as loaners until they can earn another bike. Funny, those dont get traded, stolen, lost or pawned. Condition to start Earn A Bike is to bring the loaner back.
3. We worked a deal with the city in that they provided us with Helmets, lights and starting this year, locks. They are inexpensive locks but they make it a bit more troublesome to steal it.
4. We have friends of the Co-op visiting flee markets, pawn showps, looking on craigslist and facebook market place, but only once have we recovered a bike.
I hope this helps trigger some ideas. If you come up with something let us know.
Forgive the spelling mistakes, need to get back to work. :)
Hi, all!
We are Community Bike Works, a youth development program in Allentown, PA. We plan to serve about 500 youth in our Earn a Bike and Junior Earn a Bike programs this year.
Often our students will report that their bikes have been lost or stolen within several months of their earning them. Has anyone implemented any shop procedures that work well to track the bikes that leave their shop, or otherwise to prevent/deter thefts, especially for young people?
Thank you for any thoughts you may have,
Kim Schaffer
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Kim Schaffer, Executive Director
Community Bike Works
235 N. Madison Street
Allentown, PA 18102
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