should be welcomed.

Neither Observatory Cottage nor Oleander Cottage are ideal for at-risk juveniles and a purpose-built "youth village'' is one of the building blocks needed for a better preventative programme for young people.

However, bricks and mortar are only part of the solution. Westgate has amply demonstrated what happens when a purpose-built facility is combined with inadequate staffing and programmes: Nothing.

To avoid the same thing happening, a coherent and proven rehabilitation and counselling plan must be in place, along with sufficient staff to administer it when the building is completed.

Spending a fortune on the building but skimping on the people and resources needed to run it will simply create a 32,000 square-foot white elephant.

Bermuda hardly needs to add to that herd.

However, before Finance Minister Eugene Cox gets a headache from this latest Budget demand, there is good news. Many of the services which the "youth village'' needs already exist.

Charities like the Family Resource Centre, which was praised in this column yesterday, Big Brothers and Big Sisters and so forth are already experts in these fields and can and should be called up on to work with the facility to help at risk children to turn their lives around.

This will result in cost savings in two ways. Government, instead of hiring staff and setting up expensive and bureaucratic programmes, can give cash grants to charities, who really know how to stretch a dollar, to provide some of the services.

And by using proven methods, Government will save the Country a fortune in prison costs -- because some of the at risk children who have spent time at the youth village will never step foot in Westgate.

Health and Social Services Minister Nelson Bascome deserves credit for getting this change started.

The saying "it takes a village to raise a child'' is well-worn now, but true nonetheless and presumably the use of the word in the name of the new facility is no accident. A true village will use the skills of the whole community and it is to be hoped that Mr. Bascome will use this as an opportunity to start a genuine public-private partnership which will help.