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The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, visited a number of community projects funded by the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund (CIIF) in two consecutive days to see how these projects help build social capital through the promotion of community involvement, cross-sectoral collaboration and development of community support networks.
Mr Cheung visited Tin Shui Wai and Aberdeen, together with CIIF Committee members and SC. Net members. He exchanged views with representatives of the operating organisations, partners and participants of four projects, each with unique features.
This morning (August 6), they visited the project "Keychen-up" which is operated by the Aberdeen Kaifong Welfare Association Social Service Centre and funded by the Applying Social Capital Strategies to Enhance Youth Employability Scheme - a joint initiative of the CIIF and Labour Department. With the concerted efforts of the professional bodies, business, education and social welfare sector, the project provides one-stop employment support services to young people aged between 15 and 24.
Partners of the project include the Ocean Park, School of Professional and Continuing Education College of Business and Finance of the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Young Chef Club, and a number of small and medium enterprises and schools in the district. Together they offer services ranging from pre-employment training, internship opportunities, on-the-job training, mentorship programme and employment support to help the young people equip themselves for joining the labour market.
Mr Cheung was pleased to see that the trainees gained experience and benefited from the project, and that the participating organisations had put corporate social responsibility into practice and enhanced their corporate team spirit. The project has already helped some 150 young persons, offering more than 110 internship opportunities and involving 77 mentors and 18 enterprises of various sizes since its implementation two years ago.
Mr Cheung and the members also visited the "Yue Kwong Mutual Help Network" in Yue Kwong Estate. The volunteers shared with them how the House Captain and Floor Captain approach has helped residents establish a neighbourhood support network. They also talked about the support rendered to families in need through the "community station" and the "estate garden scheme" through which the sense of belonging was strengthened among the residents.
Yesterday (August 5) Mr Cheung and some members also visited the "Tin Yiu Community Network Building Project" and the "Sunny Ching Tin Project" in Tin Shui Wai.
The special feature of "Tin Yiu Community Network Building Project" is to engage local women to promote organic and healthy diet and family meals and to teach young people how to cook, with a view to enhancing self-confidence and ability of the participants, family ties and neighbourhood support. The participants chatted with Mr Cheung and the members about the experience they gained in the project and shared some home-made snacks.
"Sunny Ching Tin Project" is a joint effort by the secondary and primary schools in Tin Shui Wai, under which the schools open their campuses to provide after-school care. Nearly 500 students have benefited in the district from the project. Cross-generation volunteer teams comprising women and young people have also been formed under the project to reach out to the needy families to help build a support network in the community.
Mr Cheung was highly impressed by all four projects. He believed that their successful experience could be widely applied to other districts so as to build a more caring and harmonious society.
Mr Cheung said, "The CIIF has been implemented for nearly 10 years. Through the collaboration of the community, the business sector, the government and the education sector, it has weaved a much needed neighbourhood support network at the community level.
"Each of the projects we visited has its own unique features and objective, reflecting that our concept of cross-sectoral, cross-disciplinary and cross-strata community participation is taking effect. This spirit of commitment and devotion is the rich social capital that we want to build."
The $300 million CIIF was established in 2002 to foster mutual support in the neighbourhood, promote community participation and provide seed funding to district projects for building social capital. The fund has so far supported 224 community projects, involving some 560 000 participants.
Established in 2008, SC. Net is a platform for various sectors of the community to exchange ideas and share experience with a view to further promoting the development of social capital.
Ends/Saturday, August 6, 2011
Issued at HKT 14:03
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