FOR most of this year, Sufian Musa, 16, has been in school only about three times a month.

He felt no motivation to study and had scant respect for his teachers - he even once punched the discipline master who was scolding him for smoking in school.

He became one of 17 troubled youth referred by one of two participating schools to the Student Advisory Centre for its four-week Recharge Programme last month. Fifteen students from five other schools joined its first Recharge Programme earlier in July.

Instead of going to school during the programme, participants - all youth at risk of dropping out - turn up at the centre, where they get help in school work and go for workshops in study skills, time management and goal-setting.

The centre, located in a Housing Board void deck in Clementi Avenue 2, started out in 2003 as a place where runaway youth could seek help and eventually be reconciled with their families.

But its focus has since shifted to becoming more school-centred.

The centre's 26-year-old founder and director Trevor Xie, who also runs a graphic design firm, said: 'We realised a lot of students had adjustment issues in the school environment. With this in mind, the centre decided to direct more of its resources to reaching out to students while they were still in school.'

Sufian is one testimony that this change in direction may have been a right one.

The Secondary 2 student liked the fact that the Recharge Programme gave him a free lunch, and that he could ditch his school uniform for his own clothes and play five minutes of pool every hour as a break from his studies.

He added: 'The teachers understood us better. I learnt that if you respect people, they will respect you and you will have many friends.'

Elysia Choo, 15, chipped in: 'We had more freedom and fewer rules... The teachers did not stress us out. They explained a lot of things about life and made us think about our future.'

Participants head back to school after the month-long Recharge Programme ends.

Ms Charine Chai, who heads pupil welfare at Tanglin Secondary, said that after the programme ended, participants attended school regularly and even showed up for their examinations.

Four more schools will join the programme next year. The centre also hopes to serve schools in Hougang, Sengkang and Punggol.

Every month, between 150 and 200 students drop by the centre after school to use its dance studio, pool table and computer terminals.

They come under the Shine Club, which offers free tuition and guidance to students from lower-income or troubled families.

In July, the centre launched the Lunch Box Fund to give children from low-income families $1 lunch money each day.

So far this year, cash and FairPrice supermarket vouchers worth $23,100 have been disbursed to 154 students.

The centre also has an online counselling and mentoring website run in collaboration with Stomp, The Straits Times' interactive portal.

The $300,000 the centre needs each year goes to pay its teachers' salaries, textbooks and counsellors' fees.

Mr Xie said: 'I want to ensure that 80 per cent of the donations go directly to the students. Everything at the centre is second hand - we want to stretch our money.'

The centre raises funds through events like its charity swim, slated to take place on Nov 11.