Care Corner Family Service Centre( social work)

The staff enjoying themselve; playing table soccer

The friendly staff members with stitch:)

hey everyone:)

Let me share with you about my experience at the crossroad youth centre as a student attachment:)

Work shadowing in crossroad youth center( YC) has been a great and enjoyable experience. we not only get shadow but we also get to carry out jobs ourselves!

In the YC, we get to meet friendly staff members who are really fun to talk to, and this allow us to ask questions without hesitations. our main job was to handle the youths that come in from tuesdays to fridays to play (chill out). The games in the YC includes X-box, pool, table soccer, air hockey and also computers for youths to use. We get to engage with the youths, play with them and get to know more about them so that they can slowly open up and tell us their stories or problems they face.The youths who come here to play are mainly from the low income family. i have learnt that many of them often go hungry because they do not have enough money to buy food. This made me realise that we human beings should not take for granted the things we have because there are people out there who have less than us yet they are living without complains. they have parents out there who cannot earn enough for their child to even own a pencil case.

Getting on to the brighter side, i get to learn how to play pool during this period of time and i realise that many of the youths can actually play pool really well! while we take 30 mins to finish one game, they take like 10 to 15 mins! a whole day of chatting and playing can actually wear our brains off! It is very fun yet tiring! Last friday, we brought this boy name danial to causeway point, a friendship band that i bought for him could make him so happy. as we walk, we realise that he does not have alot of things that normal kids have. he does not have money to even buy food! and so i wanted to make him happy for once and got him french fries. i hope that made made a bit of difference in his life:)

On mondays, the YC has this guidance programme for youths that have police cases and are given a second chance for thier actions. They have to attend this programme to learn their mistakes and reflect on themselves. We are very fortunate to be given a chance to interact with them and to participate in the activities. We get to talk personally with them or in small groups so as to let them share their past with us and how they feel. we also gather feedbacks from them after the session and share with the fellow staff. It is emotionally painful to hear their stories and to see a 13, 14 year old teen becuase of one wrong action, have their names on the black list.

Besides all this, we get to chit chat with all the staff members during our free time. we also get to pack logistics and case filing for the youths in the guidance programme. we also get to attend meetings and join in discussions and throw in new ideas. lunch was always foward looking because we get to eat at different place evryday:) we get to ride in staff cars so we do not have to get burnt under the hot sun!:)

i am looking foward to next week in YC!

fransiska:)