Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1968-1969 — Page 24

Probation Service is now a permanent feature of the Home with duties similar to those in Castle Peak.

49. The Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home caters for a smaller number than the Boys' Home, but serves a larger combination of purposes. It is a place of detention for arrested girls awaiting appearance in court, and is an approved institution under the Probation of Offenders Ordinance. It is also used as a 'place of refuge' for girls who while having behaviour problems are not necessarily guilty of criminal offences. Although fewer women and girls commit crimes it is a fact that for the female a moral problem and a delinquent one are often indistinguishable. The Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home provides classroom teaching and informal activities, but among girls more reliance must be placed on individual casework than on group therapy, which nevertheless has a part to play in remedial treatment.

50. Staff development and training progressed steadily during the year. Training courses were organized jointly by the Probation and Corrections Division and the Training Section for the staff of these institutions and of those managed by voluntary welfare organizations engaged in similar work, for example, the Shing Tak Street Boys' Centre, the Juvenile Care Centre and the Norway Hostel. The Correc- tional Institutions Section also organized in December a joint open day of correctional institutions which was held at the Begonia Road Boys' Home. This event was well attended by those interested in the work of treatment of juvenile offenders.

VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS

51. Offenders who might be described as 'socially handicapped' are as much in need of welfare services as others who are handicapped in another way. In this connection officers of the Probation Service liaise with the staff of voluntary welfare organization who are engaged in a similar kind of work. Apart from informal contacts, these officers serve as advisers or observers on committees and, as in all these relationships, the closeness of contact and level of help and advice will vary from one to the other and from year to year.

52. The Society of Boys' Centres has at present a combined boarding institution for a little over one hundred boys and a day club for about another sixty. Its aim is to help boys from poor families between 8 and 16 years of age whose homes are such that they are in danger of forming anti-social habits.

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