SINGAPORE – Jackie Nguyen, an 18-year-old of Vietnamese descent, came to Singapore when he was just five.
Feeling neglected by his family, he connected with other young people in his neighbourhood, and they would meet at the futsal court near their housing estate.
This was where YouthGo!, a programme by the Care Corner Youth Services, found him in 2022 and took him under its wing.
In its 11th year now, the programme has reached out to 2,352 young people like Jackie.
Conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Social and Family Development, YouthGo! engages at-risk youth at their haunts. Care Corner’s YouthGo! workers are deployed in the eastern part of Singapore, while Fei Yue Community Services runs the programme in the north and west.
The workers go out into the streets to interact with teenagers who loiter in communal spaces such as void decks late into the night in groups.
President Halimah Yacob visited the Care Corner Youth Services centre in Tampines on Wednesday to learn more about the programme and interact with youth groups.
Explaining the programme, Mr Lok Liangxun, the assistant director for youth services at Care Corner Singapore, said its aim is to help young people develop self-reliance and stability.
He emphasised YouthGo!’s role of helping the youth find a community in which to grow positively.
YouthGo!’s outreach is conducted in five stages. First, workers will observe an outreach venue, such as HDB void decks, before making initial contact with the youth there. They will then conduct activities that are not easily accessible to these young people, such as visiting the zoo, as some of them may not be able to afford the ticket prices.
Once the teens are comfortable opening up to the YouthGo! workers, informal sessions such as group or one-to-one conversations will be held to help the youth identify and achieve their goals.
It takes around 18 months for most of the young people to reach the graduation or termination stage, when they no longer depend on the support of the YouthGo! workers.
But some remain in the programme for five years, while others need just six months.
YouthGo! workers from Care Corner look out for certain characteristics that identify young people as being at risk.
According to their findings, most of such youth are disengaged from family and school, often due to poor familial relationships and the lack of parental supervision.
Some have been caught abusing addictive substances such as e-vaporisers, and participate in dubious activities that bring in fast cash, such as money scams on online platforms like Carousell and Telegram.
Mr Lok also noted that gang recruitment of youth is becoming more creative through the use of social media platforms.
He added that Covid-19 restrictions, such as the circuit breaker measures in 2020, have taken their toll on youth mental health, with some young people having self-harm tendencies, suicidal ideation, anxiety and mood disorders.
YouthGo! does not just try to minimise these risks, but also focuses on the adolescents’ developmental needs through activities that incorporate fun and stimulation, said Mr Lok.
He added that the young people are encouraged to offer feedback during the planning of the activities, giving them a sense of accomplishment.
Madam Halimah said YouthGo!’s “downstream” process of directly reaching out and engaging the youth is very important, especially when they do not know where to turn to for help.
Jackie, now a Year 1 mechanical technology student at ITE College East, is happy to have found a community of friends and mentors. He is grateful that he has people he can trust and turn to for advice or just a listening ear.
“My parents are quite busy, and I have rarely talked to them since I was young. Now, I have someone to talk to and I feel very relieved,” he told The Straits Times.
