Using his transportation card from the Instituto de la Juventud, or Youth Institute, of Mexico City, this young man of 20 years can, free of charge, bring his son to day care, go to job-training workshops, and get to the various areas where he makes his living selling cardboard-based handicrafts.

The transportation card is now being distributed to young people in Mexico City's most impoverished and crime-ridden neighborhoods as part of the Programa de Atención a Jóvenes en Situación de Riesgo, or Program for Attention to At-Risk Youths.

The program, initiated in 2002, now includes 10,500 participants. Of those, 8,000 follow a curriculum that includes both academic and athletic instruction. The other 2,500 join work crews, three times a week, four hours per day, in which they assist the Metro and the city's commission for the renovation of the Historic Center in exchange for 709 pesos (US65) per month.

The program began after city officials conducted a survey in municipal jails that found that a disproportionate number of inmates were young people from certain disadvantaged neighborhoods. From there, the city established centers in those neighborhoods from which to reach out to at-risk youth and provide development opportunities through courses, workshops and job training.

YOUTH PUSH

A second, sister program was created last year under the name Impulso Joven, or Youth Push, in which 1,800 participants from atrisk areas receive the same 709peso monthly stipend for working on the clean-up and ecology promotional program called "Ciudad Bonita," or "Beautiful City."

Now, the latest way in which the city is extending aid through these attention efforts is via the free public transportation card, which Youth Institute Director Pablo de Antuñano said has been funded with a monthly budget just under 3 million pesos (US280,000). The Institute is footing 53 percent of that bill, he said, while the Passenger Transport Network (RTP) is covering 34 percent and the Electric Transport System 13 percent.

De Antuñano explained that as part of the project, all participants in the Program for Attention to At-Risk Youths received a counterfeit-proof card that relies on no less than four security keys. In addition, those who participate in Youth Impulse also began receiving the cards this month. Users can renew the cards every four months, provided that they are still registered and participating in their program.

A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE

Eli Sánchez joined the Program for Attention to At-Risk Youths three years ago, just after it began. At that time, he said, he was living in Agricola Oriental, one of the capital's most infamous areas, and using drugs heavily.

"My mother abandoned me when I was 3, and my father had to work," he said. "I didn't get a lot of attention and as a result, I had a hard time adapting socially."

But in 2002, a person that he knew in his neighborhood since childhood who had enlisted as a tutor in the Program for Attention to At-Risk Youth, invited Eli to try the program. He soon became a faithful participant, attending classes and workshops. Now, through the program, he is working toward his high school diploma.

His life has improved greatly since signing up, he said.

"I married a woman I met here (at the program center), and now we are waiting for our second child. I won a scholarship sponsored by the European Union and I went to Chile for a forum for atrisk youths. I no longer take drugs, and now, one of my biggest dreams is to go to Spain."

De Antuñano said that youths like Eli who live in problematic neighborhoods have difficulty in escaping their environs due to a lack of resources.

When they are unable to escape their surroundings to seek other alternatives, he said, they are often drawn to drugs, crime or gang activity.

But with free transportation cards, De Antuñano believes that at-risk youth will have better access to healthier, more productive options.

MORE WORK NEEDED

Norma Cruz, a professor in the School of Social Work at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), said that efforts such as the Program for Attention to At-Risk Youth and Youth Push are a good start for addressing the problems of the city's young people. But she said that the programs must be expanded ever more, beyond merely offering classes and services to participants.

"The majority (of at-risk kids) grew up in a dysfunctional family, where there were problems such as alcoholism or drug addiction," she said. "So how can there be results from a program that sees the young people eventually returning to that same dysfunctional family?"

"Decontextualizing" young people by taking them out of their homes and neighborhoods to attend workshops, she said, alone is not effective. The city must also work to address the problems of the family and neighborhood environment in which the youths live.