Young people who are "not good" - as used by the leaders of An Cuu ward - are teenagers under the monitoring and supervision of the ward police due to the risk of violating the law or often gathering for leisurely activities.
The noteworthy point of this dialogue is the wording. Instead of directly calling these 53 children "subjects", the An Cuu Ward government calls them "not good" young people. A way of calling that is both frank and open to the possibility of change. This view creates space for dialogue to begin. In particular, the fact that Ms. Hoang Thi Nhu Thanh - Chairwoman of the People's Committee of An Cuu Ward - opened the dialogue with the sentence "consider me as an older sister, a younger aunt"; or Major Nguyen Tan Phuoc - Head of An Cuu Ward Police - said: "The Ward Police are home", shows that the An Cuu Ward government at this time is standing on the same side with young people. This sentence has helped shorten the distance for the dialogue to take place in the true sense of dialogue. The reality in the meeting shows that many stories are told not to justify, but to look back. Some children talk about broken families, lack of attention. Some children admit that they were once dragged by friends into racing and gatherings. Some children carry the obsession afterwards. This dialogue shows that young people who are "not good" in An Cuu ward can come to the Ward People's Committee, come to the police to share, to be supported, and even to find a positive living space. This will help the relationship between functional forces and the community move towards positive changes in quality. However, dialogue is only truly meaningful when accompanied by the next action. Young people can open up in a meeting, but to change their behavior, they need a specific path such as what profession to learn, where to work, who to follow and support. Without further steps, initial openness is very likely to fall into a void.
Another issue is the role of the family. Fathers, mothers, and grandmothers who hear their children and grandchildren say things they have never told at home for the first time show that there is a very large gap in communication and understanding between them and their "not good" children and grandchildren. When family is no longer a place to share, young people easily seek out other relationships outside of society, often not positive, which is inevitable. Therefore, dialogues like in An Cuu ward not only connect the government with young people, but also contribute to "connecting" loose threads in the family.
