The Alliance for Children Development Rights on Monday called for measures in the policy address to improve youth upward mobility and address intergenerational poverty. From August to September, the alliance polled 114 young people aged 12 to 24, with nearly 70 percent coming from families earning less than HK$20,000 a month. Thirty percent of them were part of the Strive and Rise Programme, which pairs underprivileged pupils with volunteer mentors. The survey found that around 70 percent of youngsters had little confidence in escaping poverty soon. Wong Man-ling from the alliance urged the government to further improve the one-year mentorship scheme. "So I guess the policy has its limitations because the programme only lasts for one year... We also look forward to seeing if the government will have more follow-up programmes after the Strive and Rise scheme ends," she said. "For example, when graduates join the alumni group, will there just be events? Or will there be ways to keep helping these low-income young people with government resources?" Jayden, an 18-year-old university student from a single-parent family, said he hopes the government will provide more support for young people to pursue their dreams. "I think the current government policies don't help us move up in society enough. They [officials] invest relatively little money for people with dreams," he said. "The government could start a child development account to help young people save money for future businesses. They should also streamline the application process for self-financed degree programmes," he said.
