Reaching Out

A social service agency seeks to help at-risk youth By Wang Hairong

Reaching Out

A social service agency seeks to help at-risk youth By Wang Hairong

As midnight approaches, Beijing’s bustling streets gradually quiet down as the city falls asleep. But Zhang Xiao and his colleagues set out for their nightly mission.

Zhang and his colleagues are social workers with the Rainbow Social Work Service Agency in Haidian District, Beijing. Every week from 11 p.m. Thursday to 4 a.m. the next morning they patrol Internet cafes, bars, night clubs and other entertainment and catering facilities in Haidian that are open around the clock, to search for young people who hang out and offer them help.

The Overnight Outreach program, the first of its kind in Beijing, started in February. In the past four months, Rainbow’s workers visited almost all the target facilities in the 22 neighborhoods in Haidian where young night crawlers may linger.

The program was inspired by a similar program that has been carried out since 2001 by Youth Outreach, a non-profit organization in Hong Kong.

Spending an entire night out is considered misbehavior for minors under China’s Law on Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency.

The law stipulates that if a minor stays out at night without permission, his or her parents, other guardians or boarding school should search for the minor, or seek help from the police. In addition, anyone accommodating minors staying out at all night should get consent from his or her parents or other guardians, the minor’s boarding school or the police.

Yet many profit-hungry entertainment facilities that open overnight are ignorant of the law or they just ignore it.

Beijing-basedLegal Dailycited sources with the People’s Procuratorate of Haidian District as saying that Internet cafés have virtually become a gathering place and hotbed for juvenile delinquents. “Many crime gang members first met each other at Internet cafes…they often spend nights at Internet cafes, parks and small inns,” it reported.

Night drifters

Social workers and volunteers carrying out the Overnight Outreach program work in two groups of six each.

“At Internet cafes and electronic game bars, we disguise ourselves as customers. We pay and pretend to play games while looking for our targets,” said Zhang, who is a group leader.

During one night out, Zhang and his colleagues met a 14-year-old boy surnamed Bai who was playing video games at a game room situated on the second floor of a grocery market late at night.

To start a conversation with Bai, one of the social workers pretended to be a greenhand player and asked Bai how to play the game. Then they chatted about themselves.

In the conversation, Bai revealed that he already dropped out of school. His parents were migrant workers who made a living by selling vegetables in the grocery market, and Bai often played in the game room till midnight.

The first time they met Bai, the social workers did not disclose their real identify, nor did they persuade Bai to go home. “We prefer to get acquainted first,” Zhang said.

He said that many of the problems involving young people cannot be solved overnight, so social workers should be patient and make friends with them first.

Zhang said that so far they had encountered Bai three times during their nights out. Recently, they saw Bai gambling at a slot machine. The social workers managed to find Bai’s father at the grocery store and had a talk with him. The father told them that he was aware of his son’s game playing at midnight, but for now he did not think it an outrageously inappropriate behavior. Zhang said that they would continue to communicate with Bai and his family and see what they can do to help Bai.

During their nights out over the past four months, Rainbow’s social workers met more than 100 adolescents. According to Zhang, about 30 percent of them are Beijing natives, who tend to indulge themselves in KTV bars and catering facilities, while 70 percent are migrant children or youth, who usually loiter at Internet cafes.

But many of the adolescents were not familiar with the work of social workers, and some did not trust them. Zhang said that so far, only about 10 young people they met had requested for their help.

“Once we met a boy who fled from home after a quarrel with his parents. We told the boy that we were social workers, showed our work ID and offered him free temporary accommodation, yet the boy did not trust us and turned down our offer,” Zhang said.

Nonetheless, they sometimes succeed in gaining the trust of young people. Zhang said that a young man they met at an Internet cafe surnamed Wang even volunteered to help. Wang grew up in a wealthy family. He started a small business when he was still a teenager, but later it did not do well and he lost interest in it. Finally, he closed down his business and chose to stay at home. Wang often spends the night at Internet cafés. He introduced Zhang’s team to the managers of several Internet cafes that he frequented, and told the managers to inform the social workers when they saw young night drifters.

Young people hang out for different reasons. Rainbow assorted at-risk youth into four categories, and offers them different followup services, Zhang said.

The green group is of the lowest risk and usually does not need help from social workers. This category includes classmates gathering at restaurants till 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., or students burning midnight oil while eating at 24-hour restaurants such as McDonald’s and KFC.

The blue group consists of high school or university graduates who have not found a job and are idling away their time. Social workers usually hand out brochures to this group, offering them free training and career consulting services.

The yellow group includes young people who have left home after some incidents, such as strife with parents or domestic violence. In such cases, social workers will communicate with their guardians and offer temporary accommodation if necessary.

The red group refers to youngsters who have behavioral disorders or are involved in emergency situations such as street fights. Social workers will intervene to solve the problems.

Zhang said that most young night drifters they had met are aged 18-23, and belong to the low-risk green and blue groups. While minors make up a small proportion of night drifters, they tend to belong to high-risk groups.

Extending services

Rainbow was officially registered as a professional social service agency in December 2010. It was founded by Fan Yanning, Dean of the Social Service Department of the Capital Normal University, who is experienced in community-based juvenile corrections and development.

Helping youth is one of Rainbow’s focuses. The Overnight Outreach program is part of the agency’s youth-oriented programs.

Rainbow now has more than 40 social workers, mostly college graduates from social work or related majors, and nearly one fourth have passed government certification for social workers. A majority of them are based in neighborhoods and office buildings.

Regular training is offered to all the agency’s employees and the dozen or so volunteers. Every other Friday, social workers meet to share their experiences, and outside experts are invited to give instructions.

In addition to helping young people they bump into during nights out, Rainbow also helps at-risk youth at the request of their parents or communities.

Known for his pseudonym Chang, the 17-year-old third-grade junior middle school student lives with his mother and step father after his biological parents divorced. He often quarreled with his mother, who also has a quick temper. Once, he even threatened his parents with a knife. Last year, Chang dropped out of school.

In the past months, Rainbow’s social workers visited Chang’s family several times, spending time with the boy and his parents. With the family’s consent, they also gave the boy a puppy as a pet, for pet is found to have healing effect on children with disorders such as autism. Chang was also invited to group activities organized by the agency. In February, the boy returned to school to finish his studies.

In recent years, the government has attached great importance to the development of social services and social management. Last November, 18 central government agencies released a joint statement, specifying the target to employ 2 million social workers by 2015, which is about 10 times the current size of social worker force.

The statement also encourages local government departments to purchase social services delivered by charitable and non-profit organizations, and include the expense in budget.

Now most of Rainbow’s services have been purchased by the Haidian District Government.

On March 7, the agency signed a sixmonth cooperative agreement with the Haidian District Committee of the Communist Youth League of China on helping NEET youth, which is part of the government’s efforts to prevent juvenile delinquency. NEET is an acronym for people currently “not in education, employment, or training.”

Under the agreement, Rainbow has four government-paid social workers for the NEET program and will receive 500 yuan ($79) in subsidy for each adolescent it has helped under the Overnight Outreach program.