Federation News

The Youth Think Tank Project

The Youth Think Tank Project began in spring this year and will run till 2008. Two hundred students are taking part, selected from former students at the Federation Leadership 21 centre. The project is designed to equip them with the necessary knowledge, skills and confidence to be able to understand and analyse local public policy issues, assess proposals and make recommendations.

Training is structured to groom the students as information gatherers and analysers. Tutors introduce them to the techniques they need for research and then help them define the central problems in their area of discussion. They are expected to use analytical skills and careful evaluative methods to look at the information available and make constructive comments.

Gerry, Toby and Catherine belong to a study group of ten members that is focusing on Hong Kong's medical and public health services. Gerry is in the first-year at HKU's medical faculty. Toby, in F7 at CCC Kei Heep Secondary School, has chosen a future career as a nurse and Catherine hopes to follow Gerry's example and become a medical student. By the time we met them it was evident that they were already very well motivated to contribute to community affairs.

"The discussion groups provide me with a forum where I can clarify my ideas," said Gerry. "By now we can no longer expect to be spoon-fed and we are learning how to think for ourselves."

Toby told us that he valued in particular,
"…the rigorous process of information gathering and the subsequent opportunity to meet public figures and professionals who are working in the healthcare field."

"We went through the steps of brainstorming, clarifying and refining," said Catherine, "and Corinna, our tutor helped us to identify specific problems in the field of healthcare that we should focus on."

After lectures and workshops with researchers and healthcare professionals including Dr. Ko Wing-man, they felt ready to take their study further. They conducted a questionnaire on a specific aspect of the government's proposed model of healthcare policy reform. They posed questions on the potential role of the family doctor - a concept within the area of primary medical care which Government wishes to promote.

"The responses to the survey gave us more confidence that our views were not biased by a personal viewpoint," said Toby. Instead they were the balanced, representative conclusions reached by a process of analysis which led them to prepare a report on healthcare reform and meet community leaders to present their views.

"It was a real thrill to meet people who were deeply involved in healthcare policy-making," said Gerry. "By joining the think-tank we learned analytical and communication skills plus a sensitivity to the issue that meant we could talk to them with confidence."

"This is something we could never have gained without the think-tank training," said Toby.

"We have learned to think independently, to analyse the issues and to talk about them clearly", said Catherine.

At the youth Exchange Forum taking place at HKU this week with York Chow, Secretary for Health Welfare & Food, think-tank members will have another opportunity to air their views. They already have suitable background. Now they will continue to build a body of experience which will ensure that their contributions in public policy consultations will be cogent, relevant and articulate. With such a sense of civic responsibility and social commitment, they will amply fulfill the aim of the project.

Facts & Figures

Killer diseases

The Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health in Hong Kong has just released the latest figures for AIDS cases. There have been a total of 2,738 HIV infections here since 1984, 78% of which were caused through sexual contact and 4% by injecting drugs with contaminated needles.*

This sounds a lot but over one million children die every year from malaria, a much lower profile disease. The proportions may change as a result of new research which shows that reducing malaria could help tackle AIDS. A study in Cameroon found that babies born 3 months after the rainy season - when malaria is rife - are more likely to be infected than those born at any other time of year.****

*http://www.chp.gov.hk/content.asp?lang=en&info_id=4705&id=116
** UNAIDS AIDS Epidemic Update 2005
*** South China Morning Post 1 December 2005 A9
****The Economist 19 November 2005 p.78.

These findings differ from those done with young children, where generally creativity only manifests itself if they are given time and the pressure is off.** The Creative Arts Space for Kids Foundation has figures to show that young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours on three days each week through at least one full year are 4 times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem.*** Staff at Google would tend to agree on the latter. Their software engineers say that if you want people to be creative, expect them to spend 20% of their working daydreaming. Fore-runners of a similar theory were 3M workers. Their management developed a 15% rule for allowing engineers time to dabble. The result was Post-it notes. But look what 20% has done for Google.****
* http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=3030&t=innovation
**www.nncc.org/Curriculum/create.play.grow.html
***www.creativeartspaceforkids.org/advocacy.htm
**** South China Morning Post 30 November 2005