One Sunday afternoon just after the week of final exams, at such a happy time shoes fill the narrow stairway of an apartment building across from Ximen Elementary School. Nearly a hundred teenagers are at Dream Home discussing ways to control their anger.

Parents of teenagers know how difficult it can be to communicate with them. Most of these kids come from dysfunctional homes and have no religious beliefs, but they come here willingly for an "education by example." What is Dream Home's appeal? How does its organizer, Liao Wenhua, do it?

Dream Home holds group discussions on character once a week. After praying and singing religious songs together, and after the kids have had ice cream and collected the "security deposits" they put up at the beginning of the semester, students and teachers head off joyfully for a meal together.

Dream Home founder Liao Wenhua, in T-shirt and jeans and wearing a microphone, was drenched in sweat and shouting on the stage just minutes ago. He's stayed behind with the core members of the staff for a marathon brainstorming session on Dream Home's plans for next semester.

The talented teachers are the idols of the kids. With their help, the kids resolve their academic problems, find outlets for their passions, and get direction in life.

Beginnings of a dream

Liao, who has a master's degree in financial law from Chung Yuan Christian University, encountered many teens who'd gone down the wrong path while he was working as a legal assistant. He realized that once a teen has fallen afoul of the law it is very hard to turn things around, so he constantly thought about how he could enter young people's lives and help them before problems arose.

In September 2006, Liao and a few friends from church started Dream Home Youth Center in a cramped old apartment in Ximending donated by a good Samaritan. From there, they would begin working on Liao's plan to befriend teens.

Liao is a pastor at Taipei Truth Church in the city's Da'an District. As for why he chose to work with youth in the Ximending area, of course he has a reason.

"Ximending is a challenging place," Liao says. It's an established place in Taipei for young people to congregate, and there are gangs, drugs, and the sex industry there as well. While Da'an is relatively tony and middle-class, Wanhua District, where Ximending is located, is a seedy holdout from another era, full of temptations. A fifth of Taipei's low-income households are in Wanhua. Taipei's Department of Social Welfare also reports the highest number of at-risk families of all the city's 12 districts there, with high rates of family dysfunction, unemployment, and domestic violence.

One Taipei, two worlds

In the beginning, Liao and his partners got teens' attention by playing guitar and singing on the streets and outside MRT station exits, and would then invite them to the center for snacks and a chat. But this method was not very successful as it only attracted kids who'd come to Ximending to shop.

Liao explains that there are two kinds of kids in Ximending. There are those who come to shop and attend events, and there are those who live there.

"At first, everyone we came across was of the first type, but our target was the second type," Liao says. The kids who came to shop might have been materialistic but they obviously had economic means and weren't who he was looking to help. It was the second group he wanted to help. Those were also the ones he might be able to establish long-term ties with.

Then, a high-schooler he met at church who'd taken a year of breakdancing classes gave him the idea of holding dance courses for teens. This ended up making Dream Home a success. They went to Wanhua and Longshan Junior High Schools to pass out flyers, and around a dozen kids signed up. The novel idea of pairing breakdancing and tutoring was born.

"Free for kids from poor and disadvantaged families, a nominal entrance fee for all others," Dream Home advertised. The only condition was that students had to attend a one-hour "character education" group discussion every week.

Do you remember the film Take the Lead? By teaching ballroom dancing to a group of disadvantaged children, the lead character changes their lives and opens up a new educational perspective. In Taiwan, Liao Wenhua uses street dancing as the gateway to building children's educational achievement and character, in the hope of creating a similar response.

A dream takes flight

Liao successfully found his target audience. To bring in more kids, he made contact with schools in Wanhua and set up a plan to help junior high students with their grades. He asked the schools to refer disadvantaged students with academic potential to Dream Home for free tutoring. Currently, 40 first- and second-year junior-high-school students, divided into five classes, are receiving tutoring from Dream Home. They were introduced by teachers from Wanhua, Shuangyuan, Longshan, and Dali junior highs. In addition to academic assistance, the classes provide free teaching materials and school supplies. After schools hold their periodic standardized tests, students who've made improvements can receive cash prizes of NT$1,000 to NT$5,000.

Where Dream Home's plan differs from the After-School Alternative Program of the Ministry of Education is that Dream Home's tutors aren't schoolteachers but college students still in school themselves. Where it differs from Lee Chia-tung's Boyo Social Welfare Foundation, which also trains university students in tutoring, is that Dream Home's teachers are all unpaid volunteers.

Dream Home's teachers are mostly from student groups at National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University. Some are university students who attend Liao's church. Wang Yuning, a student at National Chengchi University's College of Foreign Languages and Literature, teaches second-year English. She was once a rebellious kid herself. She received tutoring from Liao, and this is her way of showing her gratitude. "I see myself in them," she says. "Brother Liao helped me and now I want to help others!"

Liao, who grew up in an abusive family himself, feels the pain of kids from disadvantaged homes. He asks volunteers to check up on students by telephone at least once a week. "We hope that kids in unhappy or dysfunctional home environments can find some warmth at Dream Home," he says. That was the dream he longed for as a kid, and now he's filled with thankfulness and joy that he can give that to others.

Lonely students need someone to care for and accompany them. With just a hand to hold on to, they will never fall.

No more collared shirts

With its 50 volunteers, Dream Home holds breakdancing, singing, guitar, and acting classes. These classes in subjects popular with teens are the "bait" to bring teens it. They're also the channels through which kids regain confidence.

"If you want to get close to kids' hearts, you have to get close to their interests first," says the gentle-looking 31-year-old Liao. He put away the collared shirts in exchange for a T-shirt and jeans like the kids wear. "I can't breakdance, but I can watch them dance," he says.

"Kids need someone to listen to them, and they need space. They need an outlet for their passions." Liao encourages kids to express themselves to the fullest. He holds all sorts of events for them, such as talent contests, hip-hop dance shows, and concerts, where they can show off their creativity and let loose.

"Breakdancing is just a gateway," Liao says. "Once they have self-confidence they can do anything." He tells kids, "Dance steps and guitar chords are so complicated, but you can remember them. Who says you can't learn math?"

Dream Home's talented teachers have become heroes to the kids, and the kids take their words to heart. The teachers have impressive backgrounds-dance teacher Zhuang Zhicheng, for example, is Taiwan's champion solo breakdancer. Zhang Dawei, who teaches jazz percussion, is the drummer for the band that won Yamaha's pop music contest.

Liao founded Dream Home to carry out his goal of giving teens the courage to have dreams of their own.

Three rules

But those who want to find their dreams at Dream Home have to abide strictly by three rules.

"Attitude and character are key," Liao says. Students who take the tutoring classes have to "sign a contract." First, they have to agree to be on time. If they are 15 minutes late, it counts as an unexcused absence. Three unexcused absences and it's "goodbye." And to insure that students are able to make it on time, they have to put up a NT$3,000 security deposit. If they are absent less than three times, the deposit is returned in full. With these requirements, nearly 100% of the students get their deposit back.

Another of the requirements of the agreement is, at Dream Home there is no romance allowed.

"This is our unchallengeable rule," Liao says. He explains that kids who don't know how to love themselves or others will have a hard time in relationships, and that before they become romantically involved with others they have to learn the "higher love" of service. He encourages them to volunteer. This is the special lesson that Dream Home teaches.

"Kids only learn through giving and sharing that actually they don't want for that much, and that they can become a truly 'rich' and happy person," Liao says.

Last year, Dream Home began its Hope in Taipei Home Interview Program, through which volunteers take on kids from low-income families. Every month they visit the kids at home at least once and bring them food and basic life necessities. They also encourage Dream Home kids to accompany volunteers on the visits, so they can meet their peers. Some of the embittered, angry kids see others who are worse off and realize how lucky they actually are. They also begin to see such problems from an objective viewpoint and think about their causes rationally. During this year's winter break, some kids even went to visit low-income families and elderly shut-ins in Guangfu, Ruisui, and Yuli in Hualien County to understand the meaning of giving.

More dreams

From the start, when Liao invested a whole year's salary of nearly NT$500,000 from his own pocket and provided dancing classes for just a dozen or so kids, the scale of his efforts to help disadvantaged teens has gotten bigger and bigger. He's also received more and more assistance and approval from others.

In 2007, Dream Home took second prize in Flow, Inc.'s Social Entrepreneur Program. The competition's judges, H.T. Cho, president of HTC Foundation and David Lin, CEO of the Lite-On Group, also provided around NT$3 million in supplies and rents. Dream Home has also won awards from British company Diageo's Keep Walking Fund two years running, worth a total of NT$2 million.

With this support, within a few months Dream Home expects to be able to rent a facility in Wanhua for NT$100,000 a month. There will then be more space for activities for teens.

In addition to Dream Home, Liao is also actively planning to create another charity for elementary-school students.

"Rather than searching all over for junior-high students who've already dropped out, it'd be better to prevent problems as early as possible," he says. "It would use less funding and be more effective." Nowadays, kids as young as fourth or fifth grade have smoking and drinking problems. If not dealt with in time, these problems will worsen in the teen years to drug use and gang activity.

In order to keep kids from dropping out of school, Liao plans to focus on those between fifth grade and the second year of junior high. Starting in February of this year, he began working with local elementary schools Fuxing, Laosong, Dali, Xiyuan, Xinhe, and Huajiang on the Hope in Taipei project. In addition to providing tutoring for students from disadvantaged homes, he plans to pay special attention to kids with behavioral and social problems.

Change a child, change the future

In working with disadvantaged teens, what counts as a success? At what point can you let them go with ease of mind?

The answer is: when a foul-mouthed kid no longer curses. When a kid who always failed math makes it to the top of the class. When a suicidal kid is encouraged and comforted by volunteers and decides to keep holding on. When a kid who received help volunteers to help others. One by one and a little at a time, these kinds of results are seen daily at Dream Home. This year, a tutorial class student who placed into Taipei's prestigious Jianguo High was an inspiration to everyone else at Dream Home. His success seemed like a ray of hope and a way to escape poverty.

"I hope to see this district make a change. Maybe in 10 or 15 years this area's dropout and crime rates will be lower," Liao says. "Then we'll have been a success!"