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Forword October, 2001 Over the best part of four decades working in education, I have come to realise that youngsters today need to learn more than just how to read, write and add up. Today's world is both hugely complex and constantly changing, and children can find it difficult to navigate their way through the labyrinth of choices which present themselves. They are assailed from all sides by their families and whanau, their schools, their peers, the media and their local communities. Often they live in two very different worlds: the classroom with its protocols, rules and expected behaviours; and their home, where different cultural attitudes require another set of behaviours and expectations. Into this already complicated mix jumps puberty, a time of great confusion for teenagers. Their hormones rage out of control at the same time as they are trying to gain an understanding of, and finding their place in, the adult world. It is no wonder then that youngsters do not find it easy to determine their own self-worth and their values, or formulate their own opinions. Nor should it be any surprise that this is a time of great risk for our emerging adults and that they sometimes act in ways which are out of character or inappropriate. What is needed, therefore, is a programme which can be expertly facilitated and which helps teenagers work through this intensely difficult period. Hikoi ki te Hauroa is a journey to wellbeing, which provides youngsters with an opportunity to learn the skills and develop the confidence to deal with whatever life may throw at them. Rather than flounder helplessly on their own, they become equipped to handle all manner of situations and make wise decisions. As a trustee of the Safer Streets Trust, I endorse the skilful interweaving of text and workbook, which has maintained the message in a most appropriate manner. It has been my pleasure to have been associated with the development of this innovative initiative and I wish it the success it so richly deserves. Les Robertson
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