Learning and Fun in the Summer

Summer holidays are often considered the best time of the year! A release from classes and examinations and time to do new and exciting things.

However, while the long vacation is a time to take a break from the stresses of school life, this does not mean that it is a time to be bored or unoccupied. Learning can still be fun and learning without the pressures of curriculum and tests can be very enjoyable, while also

broadening perspectives and challenging creative talents and potential. “An idle mind is a devil's workshop”, as the saying goes, and keeping busy during the summer holidays help avoid the temptation to engage in dangerous or criminal activities.

The Federation is pleased to offer a range of inspiring, interesting and educational activities and opportunities to engage young people during the summer holidays, fully aware that nothing helps a youth's development more. We have endeavoured to cater for all age groups and varied interests, by providing over 2,500 programmes, available all over Hong Kong. These opportunities will be under the guidance of professionals and will help young people learn new skills and brush up on old ones; enhance development and just have fun! Please see below for more details.

We invite our partners to show support to keep young people usefully occupied during the summer vacation. You can help financially in sponsoring programmes, help us with volunteers, provide advertising and printing support, or even just help in distributing the Summer Brochure 2004. We are happy to even discuss collaborations and company visits for next summer! Please do call the Partnership and Resource Development Office at 2123 9598 for further details.

Summer holidays are probably the happiest time in a year for students. They represent one and a half months of leisure time - or more - for most students.

The Federation is very pleased to launch a series of summer programmes to help engage young people in meaningful activities during the holidays. This year, we have prepared over

2,500 summer programmes including 2,000 courses and 500 activities. All of these activities address a broad range of young people's interests and needs. Some activities encourage young people to learn new sports like judo, Chinese martial arts, climbing or canoeing. Others encourage young people to discover the joys of volunteering giving back to the community.Some programmes help polish language skills and act as showcases for creativity, like dramas and art. We even have more 'educational' activities, like those, which enhance employability through the learning of new skills like hair-styling and computer applications.

To ensure all summer courses and activities are of the highest quality, different partnerships have been established with a line up of a professional team of instructors. The Federation hopes that all young people will not enjoy their summer holidays, but also learn something useful towards their future development.

We call on all our partners to explore collaboration opportunities. Please call the Partnership and Resource Development Office at 2123 9598.

School Violence Statistics

A pressing issue on campuses today is the alarming culture of violence. The Education and Manpower Bureau asked 1,276 primary and secondary schools to report on the situation of school violence from September 2003 to February 2004. The survey revealed that there were 830 incidents of violence in schoolyards over the past six months, with 460 follow up cases. The situation of school violence is most serious in the Islands District. On average, 1 incidence of school violence happens amongst every 500 students. For Southern, Kwun Tong, Tuen Mun and Kowloon City Districts, 1 incidence of school violence happens amongst every 1000 students on average.

Attractive and Informative Summer Programme Brochures

Thanks to the sponsorship of Mrs. So Chau Yim Ping and New Island Printing Holdings Limited, the Federation was able to promote its varied and interesting summer programmes through the production of 6 attractive and informative Summer Programme Brochures 2004. If you are interested to learn more about our summer programmes, please get a copy from branches of The Commercial Press (Hong Kong) Limited, Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) Company Limited or any one of our 21 Youth S.P.O.Ts!

In April 2004, the Federation and Peking University jointly founded the Youth Development Research Centre in Beijing with the aim of creating a think tank focused on youth policy and youth affairs for the country. The Centre will constitute a synergetic network of research, professional exchanges, and training functions, by converging the strength of youth research and youth counselling on the Mainland and in Hong Kong. To promote the healthy and quality growth and development of young people, the Centre will proactively identify youth trends in the midst of the continuous impacts, challenges and opportunities that globalisation affords.

To foster exchanges between renowned community leaders and young leaders, the Federation and The University of Hong Kong have jointly launched the "Leaders to Leaders" Lecture Series 2004. Each week from April to June, 12 community and business leaders, including, Sir TL Yang, GBM, JP (楊鐵樑爵士), Professor Edward Chen, GBS, CBE, JP (陳坤耀教授), Dr. Eden Woon (翁以登博士), Mr. Ronald Arculli, GBS, CVO, OBE, JP (夏佳理太平紳士),

Sir Gordon Wu, KCMG, FICE (胡應湘爵士), Dr. Rosanna Wong, DBE, JP (王