Never Stop Hoping
Crisis intervention for delinquent youth
Calls to FIT inevitably come in from the police, and they arrive with increasing frequency. Since delays can mean even worse calamity, such calls require quick responses. Today’s FIT intervention: a boy has threatened his sister and sexually harassed a female student from his school. He is only 15 years old. What is to be done about the situation? The so-called “family intervention team† from Hamburg is a unique program, and is active nationally. The FIT is designed for quick response in situations involving delinquent youth, and is deployed before the youth welfare office is brought in. The team is fast, non-bureaucratic, and result-oriented. The FIT unit assists families and children who find themselves overwhelmed by the challenges of daily life, individuals for whom violence is an everyday event. The FIT looks after these young people, seeking readily available forms of assistance, either through a sponsor or caregiver within the family itself, or from an outside facility. The FIT team is in constant contact with young people with whom most adults cannot cope. Even parents fail to recognize the urgency of their children’s needs. “Many parents cannot perceive that a huge problem exists. Their own lives have become meaningless anyway. Jobless, accustomed to alcoholism and violence, without prospects, without hope for the future. We try to change that, even when it's very difficult.†
