The overall objective of welfare services for young people is to help those aged between six and 24 to develop themselves into mature, responsible and contributing members of society.

    To enhance cooperation among relevant youth services, 18 Local Committees on Services for Young People, chaired by the District Social Welfare Officers, coordinate the provision of youth services at district level.

    All secondary schools are provided with one full-time school-based school social worker who identifies and helps students whose academic, social and emotional development is at risk.

    Upon restructuring of outreaching social work service, 16 District Youth Outreaching Social Work Teams provided services to address the needs of high-risk youth and handle juvenile gang issues.

    Integrated Children and Youth Services Centres (previously named as integrated teams) have been formed since 1994. They provide children and youth centre service, outreaching social work service, school social work service and, where possible, family life education under one management structure. At year-end, 115 centres were operating. In 2002, the department began a five-year modernisation programme for these centres, with funding of $400 million provided jointly by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and the Lotteries Fund on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Through improving the fitting-out standard and provision of furniture and equipment, these Integrated Children and Youth Services Centres would become more appealing to young people.

    To sustain efforts in promoting the healthy development of young people, new resources were provided to extend the Understanding the Adolescent Project to an additional 105 secondary schools in the 2002–03 school year, engage 150 peer counsellors to strengthen support for Secondary 3 school leavers and expedite the formation of Integrated Children and Youth Services Centres.

    The Community Support Service Scheme (CSSS) assists young people who have broken the law or are at risk. In addition to one team operated by the SWD, there are five CSSS projects operated by NGOs throughout Hong Kong. At year-end, 2 333 young people were served by the CSSS.

    To help young drug abusers abstain from drug-taking habits and reintegrate into the community, a multi-modality approach is adopted to provide drug treatment and rehabilitation services. At year-end, there were 14 voluntary drug treatment and rehabilitation centres/halfway houses operated by five subvented NGOs. In view of the increasing number of young substance abusers, additional resources were secured for setting up two additional Counselling Centres for Psychotropic Substance Abusers which commenced operation in October. By year-end, there were a total of five such centres. These centres were also allocated additional resources to strengthen preventive programmes for secondary school students.

    The Drug Dependent Persons Treatment and Rehabilitation Centres (Licensing) Ordinance, which provides for the licensing, control and inspection of drug dependence treatment centres, came into operation on April 1. By year-end, 26 certificates of exemptions valid for treatment centres were issued and 18 applications were under processing.

    To continue with efforts in providing comprehensive services for youth-at-risk, an all-night drop-in centre was set up in 2002 on a pilot basis for a period of three years. NGOs were commissioned to run late-night programmes for young night drifters at different indoor recreation centres operated by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Cross-sector collaboration has been further enhanced with the implementation of referral mechanisms for the Student Health Service under the Department of Health and the Customs and Excise Department to refer youth-in-need to appropriate welfare services units.