people leaving the secondary schools who are affected by the impact of modern industrial life in the confined conditions of overcrowded urban and industrial areas. Several interested organizations were con- sidering the need to develop work with young people. A meeting was called by the Hong Kong Conference of Youth Organizations at which it was agreed that an organization should be formed with the object both of strengthening and assisting the work of existing groups and of forming and running new youth groups.
90. The American Friends Service Committee undertook an interest- ing experiment in the formation of a Youth Group for about 50 difficult teenagers of Li Cheng Uk area through which they had enjoyable outlets for their youthful enthusiasm. The Department undertook a major experiment in working with the 16 to 25 age group in the Community Centre at Tsuen Wan; the participants were mostly young workers from textile mills and other factories in this industrial town. These young people, with rather more money in their pockets than their counterparts in the city, had a meeting place where they were able, with the assistance and guidance of group workers, to fulfil their needs and develop their interests. At least 120 young men and women joined in the various activities of the Youth Group every evening.
91. The Hong Kong Sea School which provides 350 boys of 14 and above with training for a working life at sea continued to operate at full capacity during the year; moreover because of an increased demand for trained seamen by the various local shipping companies the School was considering expansion and had decided to build a new mess hall and a kitchen as the first stage; for this, the Board of the Swedish 'Save the Children' Organization offered a grant of $80,000.
CHAPTER XII
COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL CENTRES
92. Eleven months after the opening at Wong Tai Sin of the first Community Centre in Hong Kong, which was built with money provided by the United States Government, the first of three more community centres-to be built with funds subscribed in the United Kingdom during World Refugee Year-was officially opened by H.E. the Governor on 19th June. This new Centre is situated in the rapidly growing industrial town of Tsuen Wan, an area on the coast a few miles from Kowloon which until 1948 consisted of little more than a
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