austraLasia 1288
Hong Kong's first 'School of Hip Hop' - inside 'The
Hangout'.
HONG KONG 15th October 2005 -- Now, there's nothing that
beats first-hand information and eyewitness reporting, and there is
also, it seems, nothing like a small error or two to invite the former.
So in first place, an apology to Youth Outreach for a couple of
author-induced errors in #1286. The building is indeed a tall building
but it does not yet claim to be as tall as HK's Central Plaza building
at 78 floors (the tenth tallest building in the world, BTW). Our '76th
floor' was in reality the 7th! But there are a few other less obvious
corrections that should be noted, since a number of recipients of
austraLasia have already indicated an interest in giving Youth Outreach
some focus in forthcoming Salesian Bulletins. Here then the corrections:
The shops are all on the street level. Half of the 5/F is admin.
The other half is a Counseling Center(staffed by Clinical
Psychologists). 7/F is the residential center for boys on probation.
The director's office is located inside the center. Both 4/F and 16/F
(the roof) are where the facilities for the Adventure Based Counseling
program are set up. This is a professional setup run by qualified staff
and is really rather more than an "Adventure Playground."
The climbing wall and the rope-way extend a further 3 floors into the
sky (18/F). There is also an abseiling wall that starts on 16/F and
goes all the way down to 4/F. It is the only centre of its kind in HK
and as far as we know in Asia. Next to the Institute of Youth Studies
on 14/F we also have 5 en-suite, twin-bed rooms decorated to hotel
standards (phone, TV, safe, computer) to welcome visitors/youth workers
from other countries. The annual operating budget is more than HK$20
million. The Jockey Club gave a grant to cover the capital costs of the
building - but does not give operating costs. The membership of 'The
Hangout' now stands at slightly more than 10,000. There is actually a
total staff of slightly less than 100. But there are also about
50 unemployed/out-of-school youth employed for one year as "Program
Assistants". This gives them an employment record and YO helps them
with outplacement at the end of the year. The office of the "Courier
Service" which YO runs to employ unemployed youth is located on 9/F and
the computer room is located on 11/F.
Especially worth adding to any focus on
YO is an
excellent news story, and at this point we hand over to Fr Peter Newbery:
"In May of this year we were asked by an
organisation in
Germany called "Battle of the Year" (BOTY) to organize the
HongKong/Macau preliminaries of an international Hip Hop Competition
(like the world cup for soccer). Since YO was the organizer we could
not enter a team under our own name. However, the boys from our School
of Hip Hop organized their own team (called "Fabulous") and entered the
competition which was judged by guests from Japan, Taiwan and Hong
Kong. They won first prize. This meant that they could progress to the
next stage which was for the whole of China and was held in Shanghai in
September. Naturally, two of our staff went with them. To our very
pleasant surprise, they also won the first prize in Shanghai, beating
teams from all over China (the judges came from Germany). This meant
that they won the right to represent the whole of China in the finals
in Germany. We are obviously both very proud and very pleased. The
finals are in Germany next weekend (20-23 Oct). BOTY (Germany)will pay
all the costs for the dancers, including the plane tickets. I have
managed to find a benefactor to donate two more plane tickets so that
two of our staff can go with them. There will a formal "Send Off
Ceremony" for them next Monday evening (17/10). The Chairman of the
Hong Kong Central Commission on Youth,Dr. Philemon Choi will
symbolically present them with plane tickets. The Commission on Youth
gave us the grant to set up the School of Hip Hop in the first place".
Clearly, then, a developing story to keep an eye one. Well done
YO! Should readers want photos, we have some here, and you can
also check out the website (for low res) at http://www.youthoutreach.org.hk/
.
One more thought - anyone want to train at their
Institute of Youth Studies??
_____________________________________
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