A press conference was held on August 31, 1999 to announce the results of a survey on how youth spent their summer. Participants of the survey were members from our 4 children and youth centres, their parents, also non-members from the public. There were altogether 311 people participated. The aim of the survey is to understand the reasons for youths to join the summer activities, what activities they usually join and their feedback about the activities. The results are as follows:

1. Members spent more time during their summer vacation to study. Non-members spent more time on activities such as karaoke and summer jobs.

2. Members gained more experience than non-members in 3 areas: broadening their social circles (+31.9%), able to join the activities of interests (+25.3%), helping other people through volunteer activities (+13.2%).

3. In the survey, there was a question to members and their parents about what they would do if they or their children did not participate in any summer activities. Among the replies, 46.7% said it would be boring, 34.7% said they do not know what to do, another 34.7% said they would not know that many more friends, 33.5% said it would not be that meaningful, and 31% said they would not learn that much etc. An interesting point was that 13.9% of the parents stated that there would be more pressure if their children did not participate in summer activities. For non-members, although 31% replied that they have made more new friends and 34.5% said they were pretty happy; 25.9% thought that it was boring, 20.7% did not know what to do, 13.8% even thought they were wasting their time.

According to the results, participants spent about 2.6 hour per day at youth centres, each of them joined about 3.4 activities on average. Most of them thought that they have broadened their social circles and gained more knowledge through participating the activities of youth centres. Their management and thinking skills have also been improved.

Another fact that was usually being ignored was that parents can also gain some valuable experience when their children join the youth centres. It is because 19.4% of the parents said that their parent-child relationship was improved as a result of their children joining the activities of the youth centres. Thus, it can be a stress relief for parents.

In conclusion, although youth centre is not the only route to help to facilitate the growth of youth, it however, portrays an important role, especially during summer vacations. Many of the summer activities arranged by the centres are attractive, as well as interesting, thus enable the youth to experience a fruitful and meaningful holiday.