New 'gang' of ex-offenders aims to help youths at risk

[SantaClause]

New 'gang' of ex-offenders aims to help youths at risk
By Carolyn Quek

A NEW 'gang' in town takes in those with past criminal records, but it aims to do anything but stir trouble.

In fact, it wants to do the opposite - keep youth out of trouble.

Calling itself Architects of Life (AOL), the group of four ex-offenders wants to get young ex-offenders and youth at risk of delinquency back on their feet.

Its work involves running a mentoring programme for ex-offenders and holding talks and workshops in the schools to reach at-risk youths.

It has taken 'gang leader' Glenn Lim two years rally the group to the cause. All of them have had brushes with the law but have since turned around their lives.

Among those helping him are Ms Carol Wee and Ms Daphne Tan, both 28.

Ms Wee, now a youth worker, was orphaned at a young age and placed in relatives' care, but she fell into bad company and dabbled in drugs as a teenager.

At 15, she decided she had had enough and turned herself in. It was during her six months in isolation in drug rehabilitation that she thought hard about what she wanted to make of her life.

Ms Tan was a former gang member whose turning point came on a night she was tossed into a police lock-up as a teenager. The former Normal (Technical) stream student resolved to make good and study hard, and recently graduated with a degree in banking and finance.

 

[ANDYSIAO14]

Been wondering....
whats the rate of criminals becoming good these days after serving for their crimes they did in the past?

the ones that i think maybe has future ARE the soft-core criminals that kana sabo or just doing crimes for attention...
but those really the hard-cores ones - do they really will be accepted working in banks if they somehow get a degree/diploma in banking ?

will the banks say yes to them ??
not only banks...lets say some other jobs holding a minimum entry or Olevels....
accepted?

if you has a company of your own..
be it small or big , whats your take in this?

 

[WOOHOO]

no la banks and all financial related institutions/hotels/jewelry industry and most MNCs who do screening will not accept them de. So angry just thinking about this. Yellow Ribbon?? Its all crap and bullshit!!

 

[Received_by_Kings]

Who says life doesn't offer wastrels second chances?

If you missed the fun with Youth Challenge, there's always Blue Ribbon Project and Architects of Life later on.

 

[ballsathome]

My three favorite clones are yellow_people, CCBCaoPi, besotted :p:p:p

I know......

 

[PaulaLewis]

It's great to hear that there are good gangs like this that help at-risk youths and troubled teens stay away from crime and bad gangs. Keep up the good work, and I hope you can help more parents with a struggling teen or troubled teen that needs help in school or home.. If at-risk youths are not led toward responsible adulthood and participative citizenship, the burden to society may include an increase in crime and increased expenditures for prisons. This page discusses everything you need to know about at-risk youth.

 

[Lian9]

All these suai ka never cha yeung or gia tua kee, how to consider ah Beng? Ask them why tau mo dam dam, they reply you haven hair dryer lo

 

[qwerty]

Been wondering....
whats the rate of criminals becoming good these days after serving for their crimes they did in the past?

the ones that i think maybe has future ARE the soft-core criminals that kana sabo or just doing crimes for attention...
but those really the hard-cores ones - do they really will be accepted working in banks if they somehow get a degree/diploma in banking ?

will the banks say yes to them ??
not only banks...lets say some other jobs holding a minimum entry or Olevels....
accepted?

if you has a company of your own..
be it small or big , whats your take in this?

i know someone working in prison who say 90% of those ppl in prison are hopeless and will likely to go back to prison after being release...


are they hopeless by nature or forced to do crimes because the society cannot accept them, that, only they themselves know the answer

 

[laksaboy]

Wayward youths need to be put on a 'tough love' reality show with hardcore convicts.
Uncensored (rate it NC-16 on tv if you have to).
Put in lots of profanities, references to violence and homosexual prison rape, and watch the ratings soar!

Something like this:

[video=youtube;S_Fw2y2S6Ew]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_Fw2y2S6Ew[/video]

[video=youtube;cjO9LQvDDww]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjO9LQvDDww[/video]

[video=youtube;jEiwmcicOu0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEiwmcicOu0[/video]

The bad thing is: Singapore prisons don't really have many inmates on life imprisonment. Getting jailed 5, 10, 20 years is not hardcore enough.
You need a life sentence, without death penalty, so those jailed for life really don't care about killing or raping others in prison.