When teenage street kids want to change their life and decide to leave the streets of Pattaya they need somewhere to go, and one place where they can receive the help they need is the Fr. Ray Drop-In Center.

In a few months time this will be a safe home for eight young people.

The Drop-In Center will help these young people get their life back on track with counseling and by offering a variety of options such as returning back to school, attending a vocational college or finding suitable employment. But even after graduating from school or college, or finding the job they want, these young people still need support.

If immediately after graduating and finding work they are asked to leave the Drop-In Center, there is a chance that they will return to their former life on the streets; this is a life they know and one they are comfortable with. They still have friends on the streets and they may have yet to make new friends in their new place of employment, so out of loneliness they forget all they have learned and return to a life with not much future or hope.

The Fr. Ray Foundation has decided to build a ‘Half-Way House’, a place where these young people can continue to live, but live independently and still know that the help and support they may need is available to them.

Fr. Peter, Acting-President of the Fr. Ray Foundation, recently blessed the new construction site in the hope that the building work will be completed with no problems, and that when finished, the new home will allow its residents to grow into decent hard working adults.

The new Half-Way House will accommodate up to eight residents. There will be cooking facilities and a TV room, and the residents will be expected to keep the house clean and tidy. There will be rules that must be followed, but the age of the residents will be taken into consideration, and they will have more freedom than residents at the Drop-In Center.

Most people living in Pattaya, or any large town or city in Thailand, will have seen children begging and living on the streets. The Fr. Ray Foundation is doing what it can to help these young street kids change their lives. Many who arrive at the Fr. Ray Drop-In Center will go to live at the Fr. Ray Children’s Home, but with the new Half-way House, the Fr. Ray Foundation will be able to give these older teenagers the desperate help and support they need.