Family and schools could help keep youth off streets

The Government's move to allocate more resources to keep young people off the streets at night has been welcome by social groups, but the plan is not comprehensive enough to tackle the problem, according to an outreach social worker.

Wan Lap-man, executive committee member of Concern for Youth-at-Risk, Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union, said: 'It's encouraging to see that the Government is concerned about the issue, but the move fails to address the root of the problem.'

In view of the increasing number of young drug abusers, particularly at rave parties, and young offenders, the Government has allocated additional recurrent resources of $22 million in 2001-02 to strengthen the manpower provisions in 18 integrated teams, with the addition of three professional social workers to each team to provide services to young night-drifters.

Prior to the move, Mr Wan said there were no regular services targeted at young night-drifters.

'We [outreach social workers] or the integrated teams sometimes went to places where young people hang out at night, such as playgrounds, games centres, fast-food restaurants and public housing estates, to establish contact with these youth and see how we could help them,' he said. 'But it was not a regular practice.'

In October 1997, the Government launched a two-year pilot study on young night-drifters. Two teams, upon the recommendation of the Working Group on Services for Youth at Risk, were set up by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and Youth Outreach.

The teams aimed to provide on-the-spot crisis intervention and short-term follow-up services.