XN000022-1994-12-03+04 — Page 10

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Integrated teams for youth services

The Subventions and Lotteries Fund Advisory Committee has endorsed a proposal of setting up 10 integrated teams to provide better and co-ordinated services for young people in the territory.

Preparation works for the establishment of these teams are in full swing and it is expected that they will all become operational within the current 1994/95 financial year, a spokesman for the Social Welfare Department (SWD) said today (Sunday).

Of the 10 integrated teams, two are located in Sham Shui Po, two in Wong Tai Sin/Sai Kung, and one each in Tuen Mun, Sha Tin, Yuen Long, Tsuen Wan/Kwai Tsing, Eastern/Wan Chai and Kowloon City.

"The proposal of setting up integrated teams is one of the recommendations by the Report on Review of Children and Youth Centre Services which was released to the public earlier this year.

"The report recommended that services for young people should be integrated and provided in a specific catchment area by a team of social workers under one management structure..

"The services to be integrated are children and youth centres, outreaching social work, school social work and, where appropriate, family life education," the spokesman said.

To implement the recommendations of the report, the SWD has invited non- governmental organisations (NGOs) providing services for young people to set up integrated teams. A total of 37 applications from 21 NGOs have been received so far.

In consultation with the Steering Committee on the Implementation of Integrated Team of Children and Youth Services, the SWD recommended that as a start, 10 integrated teams should be set up in 1994/95.

"However, the SWD and the Steering Committee will continue to examine the rest of the applications submitted with a view to forming more integrated teams in the coming years," the spokesman said.

end/Sunday, December 4, 1994

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