Begin from Family
a preventive educational project
“Begin from Family” (BFF), organized by HKFYG’s Youth Crime Prevention Centre (YCPC), has been funded by the Beat Drugs Fund since April 2017. Main targets are high-risk youth with behavioural and emotional problems, including special educational needs. Resources are designed for them and their parents. Part II of the project began in May this year. It is designed to identify high-risk youth and families and offer them support.
Goals Minimizing delinquency, crime and drugtaking among youth-at-risk Stronger, more functional relationships through enhanced parenting and family communication Improving young people’s emotional control as well as social skills
A localized assessment tool has been developed for BFF to understand family needs and the risks of drug-taking behavior among youth. Evaluation of results show enhanced family communication and cohesion, better parental supervision and stronger resistance to substance abuse among youth. Hong Kong primary and secondary schools take part.
Resources include
Enhancing awareness of drug-related issues among parents and youth
Training manuals for social workers and teachers
Preventing youth from developing delinquent, criminal and drug-taking behavior patterns
Three training resource kits for participants
A parent says
Her son says
“I used to scold my boys when they didn’t get their work done but after joining BFF, I can see they needed time to change. Now they are behaving much better and the BFF cooking session was really impressive. Although we had never cooked together but we recently tried making dumplings at home. They helped with everything and I can see the good BFF has done them.”
“Mum doesn’t lose her temper with me so much now, she even makes time to play chess and cards and we get on much better than before.”
“I know more about the different types of drugs and how to identify them because of BFF. It’s important to tell kids about what they should not do - smoking, drinking, taking drugs – and how to say no.”
Educational videos
“I know about drugs like cannabis and ketamine from BFF and how to say “no” to them. I am sure I won’t take any drugs in future. It’s bad for me and I know it.”
Strengthening Families Programme The American Strengthening Families Programme (SFP) is an internationally recognized evidence-based family skills and drug prevention programme. Four levels of training in life skills and parenting include bonding, setting boundaries and monitoring children’s behaviour. Lessons include communication skills, rules, rewards and responsibilities, stress and anger management skills, problem solving and win-win negotiation. “Begin from Family” adopts SFP content translated into Chinese and adapted for Hong Kong Read more ycpc.hkfyg.org.hk/2019/10/21/begin-from-family/
Partner Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at The City University of Hong Kong
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