An agency which helps teenage mothers has revealed new plans to reach out to young men at risk of going off the rails.

Teen Services is well-known for helping young mothers through counselling and assistance in continuing their schooling.

Although it currently offers limited help to young men too through counselling and support in accessing education, it now hopes for a 26 percent Government funding hike in order to dramatically expand its ?male outreach? programme.

In a speech to the Rotary Club of Hamilton yesterday, Teen Services director Michelle Wade explained that, if successful in securing an additional $90,000 annual funding on top of the current $339,000 grant, it will be able to offer counselling, education, life skills and parenting lessons and group therapy to 13-25 year old men.

The target group will consist of the partners of teenage mothers helped by Teen Services and those deemed to be at risk of teen fatherhood, referred through agencies such as Court Services.

Citing newspaper stories about the negative and damaging behaviour exhibited by some young men, she commented: ?Bermuda?s social service system is overburdened, and it does not provide a comprehensive preventative or rehabilitative programme on one site.

?With the recent rise and severity of gang activities, violence and attacks, robberies, drug trafficking and abuse, premature sexual practices and poor family relationships, the gap in service delivery needs to be filled.?

She explained that Teen Services used to have a male counsellor to offer help to young men, but he was lost as the result of government funding cuts in 1993. If successful in their future application for an additional $90,000, this would cover the planned programme plus hiring a new male counsellor.

The agency plans to approach the corporate sector as well as the government for assistance with launching and financing the programme.

While waiting in hope that this will be able to get underway by the end of the summer, a pilot programme will begin next month with the help of Rose Vickers of Bermuda Anger Management Mediation and Professional Services. Mrs. Vickers has volunteered to begin group therapy sessions for young men affiliated with Teen Services, focusing on topics such as anger management, parenting, self-esteem, and employment.

Although this is good news, it must must work in tandem with other measures, said Ms Wade, to ensure that young Bermudians are not allowed to slip into a negative lifestyle.

Part of the problem, she believes, is an education system which lets down youngsters who are not particularly academic.

?It is believed that the current educational structure and lack of a separate technical institute has further alienated young males in Bermuda.

?Some young men seem to be having difficulty fitting in to the educational system.

?Consequently, young men are dropping out of school and as a result become unemployable and become involved in negative behaviours,? she told the Rotarians.

?I know that the schools have technical programmes but there should be a separate institute where one can enrol at High School level. Not every child is academic ? some are more ?hands on? ? and they have nowhere to turn. They end up feeling embarrassment and alienation.

?In many cases they eventually become clients of our prisons, drug programs, the court system and our mental health hospitals. The cost to the community to provide services on these rehabilitative and punitive levels is alarming.

?It costs $48,000 to $55,000 to finance an inmate per year. Why not take that money and help these people and stop them getting into the newspaper through negative events??

Explaining that this is the first time she had mooted the idea, and that she had not yet raised the issue with the Minister for Education, she added: ?This is just one option. We are all looking for answers so we can live in a better community.?