PERKASA, since 2010 passionately nurtures the inherent strengths and talents of youth, fostering vibrant community engagement and cultivating a powerful bond between the youth and their surroundings.
This means that they are likely to be involved in activities of misconduct due to their marginalised life, low socio-economic status and the lack of opportunity to realise their true potential.
If this rating is applied to the Malaysian context, it means that almost eight million of our youth between the ages of 15 and 25 can be categorised as ‘At-Risk Youth’. Plus, the Malaysian Youth Index 2020 showed that almost 9,221,940 of Malaysian youths were involved in at least one activity of misconduct.
The adolescent years are indeed a challenging period. It is during this stage that youth try to seek self-identities which see the gradual deterioration of their relationship with their own families, and the corresponding increase in their relationship with peers and friends. At the same time, families will normally try to exert control over their behaviour so as to be in tandem with existing social values. More often than not, such effort creates conflicts as it goes against the youths’ need for independence to discover their intellectual abilities and gain a certain emotional autonomy according to their preference. We also see this as a problem of youth who have been marginalised from mainstream development. Most of those involved in social ills come from the low socio-economic class, are low-income earners, and have no exemplary role models.
With the large youth population, coupled with the vision that youth are the potential driver of development, it is only right that this group be nurtured to become a righteous generation with the right mindset, who are knowledgeable, creative and capable of staying away from a negative way of life, while serving as a catalyst for others to also change for the better.
Premised on this, PERMATA Remaja as an integrated strategy based on the principle of positive youth development to tackle the rampant issues involving at-risk youths namely the Community-based Empowerment (Youth in the Community). Thus, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia was appointed as the implementer of the project subsequently conducted by Pusat Pemerkasaan Remaja (PERKASA) as In-Community Intervention (Komuniti PERMATA Remaja programmes.)
The importance of empowering and nurturing young people to help them overcome challenges and realize their true potential. This includes providing opportunities for personal growth, creativity and knowledge acquisition.
It emphasizes the potential for positive transformation among youth, aiming to guide them away from negative behaviors and social issues. The goal is to foster a righteous generation with the right mindset, capable of making constructive contributions to society.
The implementation of community-based empowerment programs aimed at addressing the issues faced by at-risk youth. These programs focus on positive youth development, indicating a commitment to creating a supportive and inclusive environment for young people.