The Teen Challenge

Teen Challenge, a halfway house dedicated to aid

men of all ages rebuild their shambled lives, was
originally created by a man named David Wilkerson in
1958. The first ever Teen Challenge home was built in
Brooklyn, New York where the city and streets were
riddled with gangs and illegal activity. From here, the
Teen Challenge home has established itself around
the world in many different regions. One of which is in
Singapore.

The Teen Challenge Halfway House in Singapore is

located at Old Choa Chu Kang road, next to the
Christian cemetery and near the military airbase. The
building that is now Teen Challenge used to be an old
Primary School. The secluded setting of the halfway
house gives a sense of peace in the inmates journey
of recovery.

The halfway house can hold many inmates and has their doors wide open for entry. There are
altogether three different types of inmates. The first type are inmates who join straight out of
prison and have been referred to join the Teen Challenge. The second type are walk-in inmates
who are from churches, the Institution of Mental Health or basically anyone who needs help and
the third type are inmates who just need a place to stay in after leaving jail or even completing
their Teen Challenge programme. All in all, most of the inmates who come into Teen Challenge
learn how to reintegrate back to society through lessons, counselling and hands on therapy.
What we do is we deal with their issues. So theres education theres classes. Of course, ours
is a faith based programme so the spiritual component is there. So they will serve the tail end of
their sentence here before getting released says Mr Eddie Joseph, the assistant director at the
DARE Centre of Teen Challenge.

Because Teen Challenge is faith based, the inmates have a lot of church services to attend to.
Upon entering, they will also be met with a really strict schedule to live by and really tight house
rules. Teen Challenge accepts inmates from all walks of life and from different races. But
whether or not they decide to embrace the Christian faith, thats up to them.

Mr Eddie Joseph himself was once an inmate in the

halfway house. He used to be programmer, finished
his programme and eventually worked his way up
the ranks.

Oh, I came through the programme! I was a

programmer in 1985. Since then Ive been here. So
after I finish the programme I join on as helper then a
trainee staff then I became a counsellor Mr Eddie
Joseph reveals.

Mr Eddie Joseph has been in the business for more

than 30 years and used to run their Youth Centre
and Bukit Batok Hostel, both closed down after the
SARs period due to bad financially.

However, the Teen Challenge Youth Centre is going

to restart again to extend aid to troubled teens.