Certainly, that is the case with the Family Learning Centre, which was profiled in yesterday's Royal Gazette .

Young people tend to get a lot of criticism today, but the reality is that it is a small minority of children who are disruptive and out of control.

And charities like the Family Learning Centre help to turn around troubled children one at a time by working closely with them and their families.

Part of that has come about as a result of the change in focus by the Family Learning Centre which started as a tutoring facility but changed its focus to family support.

"Eventually it became very clear that many of the children we saw for academic needs had other issues which interfered with their ability to do well in the school,'' said executive director Martha Dismont, and the Centre changed to give support to the families.

"If you want to see a change and have success you have got to be able to work with influences in a child's life,'' she said.

Too often, when the Bermuda community focuses on a problem such as education, troublesome youth or poor working skills, there is a tendency to blame the teachers, poor parents, incorrigible youths, drugs, "the system'' and so on.

Instead of assigning blame, the Family Learning Centre and other charities like it are doing something about it and often succeeding, one step at a time, in making a difference.

That's a lesson that the whole community could learn. With support from the private and public sectors, groups like the FLC and the inter-agency committee for children and families can prevent many of the social problems which later afflict the community before they begin.

TOO MANY HATS EDT Too many hats Environment and Development and Opportunity Minister Terry Lister professes not to see where he may be faced with a potential conflict of interest in his new super-Ministry.

It is quite simple. If the Bermuda Land Development Company, of which he is Minister, or a BLDC tenant submits an application for a development and the decision of the Development Applications Board is subsequently appealed, Mr.

Lister may have to make a ruling on the appeal.

Which hat, the Development one or the protect the Environment one, will he wear when he makes the decision? And regardless of what decision he makes, or how well-founded the decision is, it will always be regarded with suspicion in the same way that a Works Minister who is also Environment Minister would always be under suspicion on appeals for Government buildings or a Tourism Minister who is also Environment Minister would be suspect for applications concerning hotels.