Plight of the youngsters

Bradford Telegraph & Argus
14 Aug 1979
Are The Kids Alright? - Brass Tacks
BBC2

In Sunderland the problems of youth unemployment are writ large. There are 40 percent fewer small businesses than the national average. The shipyards and coalmines are threatened with closure. Dole queues and boredom are the lot of many youngsters in the area.
   In Are the Kids All Right? BRASS TACKS (BBC-2, 8.5) talks to the young unemployed of Sunderland including Michael, a 16-year-old whose dreams of

making it are all centred on his £300 guitar and his new band, The Rejected.
   The City Council's solution to the problem includes a seven million pound leisure centre and a pedestrian precinct. Alan Cohen, director of the Community Theatre group, thinks that involvement in the arts will enrich the children's lives, but the Government cutbacks are threatening to close down his project.