Most
people in the community do not accept "marginal youngsters"
simply because they have presupposted that these youth only enjoy fooling-around,
making troubles and are not at all productive. This may explain why
they are often mistaken as troublemakers and so they are frequently
questioned by the police. One may not know how this labeling attitude
may affect these young people's self-esteem. Not being accepted, they
can easily give up and their behavior becomes even worse which in turn
reinforces people's attitude towards them. This vicious cycle can be
disastrous if no remedial work is done.
Our
outreaching service department is concerned about this phenomenon and
has been carrying out de-labeling works for some time. Based on the
youth empowerment concept, a youth concern group was set up in July
2000. Thirty youngsters joined the team to work in partnership with
our social workers. One of the objectives of the group is to set up
a "de-labeling" team to raise the community's awareness and
empathy of the problems the youth are facing today and thus cultivate
care and acceptance of them. On the other hand, young people are encouraged
to voice their opinions on issues relevant to them like educational
reform issue and to develop their potentials. In addition, by serving
the community through monthly volunteer work, they are encouraged to
join and hence be accepted by the community.
This
de-labeling movement had roused the media's interest; a television program
recently had a special feature on de-labeling works, and one radio youth
program broadcasted a series in February in which our team members were
interviewed on their opinions and experiences as volunteers. With the
mass media's coverage, the advocacy of de-labeling youth can reach a
wider percentage of the public. The strife for youth acceptance by the
community has thus moved a step forward.
