Message from Executive Director

In the new year, I bought a bunch of pure white flowers and placed them in front of the window, blending into the snowfall outside as if waiting for the arrival of an old friend.

This old friend, we knew each other for more than half a century, and it took me a while to call him a "friend" after we met. We shared the same vision about youth work, but our interests, backgrounds, lifestyles, eating habits, and even our way of talking and behaving were different. It wasn’t until one day, I discovered that our friendship was not about how many common interests we had, but it was a friendship based on trust, containment, and support.

Last February, I lost this old friend, and while I dared not miss him all the time, I found that the “missing" found me. Since James left us, the sentence I hear the most at Across U-hub is, "I feel like James is still around every corner " We all miss this old friend

People in Across U-hub called James a youth mentor, which he readily accepted Interestingly, we called him "mentor" not because of his knowledge, character or ability, but because he was "true.” He loved to talk, and what he said was not always right. In fact, in many cases the listeners disagreed with him, but somehow they just liked to listen to James.

Message from Executive Director

James presented the image of an alternative mentor, an "imperfect" person with many deficiencies that were obvious to all. However, he dared to open up and share his own strengths and weaknesses, and in this way, young people could boldly say what was wrong with him, and they could also turn their back on him from time to time. In this way, he also boldly made honest suggestions to young people.

In any case, for half a century, James steadfastly walked with young people, leaving the "true" footprint we all miss