************************************************************
The following is issued on behalf of the Youth Education, Employment and Training Task Force of the Commission on Poverty:
The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam, who is also the Chairperson of the Commission on Poverty (CoP), officiated at a Pledging Ceremony today (July 9) which kicked off the implementation of various programmes under the "Life Buddies" Mentoring Scheme.
Other officiating guests included the Chairman of the Mentorship Programme Working Group under the Youth Education, Employment and Training Task Force of the CoP, Dr Philemon Choi, and the Chairman of the Agency for Volunteer Service (AVS), Mr Lee Jark-pui.
About 500 representatives from government departments, public bodies, businesses and schools and individual mentors joining the Scheme attended today's ceremony. Football star Edmond Yapp attended the ceremony as a guest of honour. He shared with attendees the special moments in the journey of his football career and gave encouragement to the volunteers and youths participating in the Scheme. Miss Chan Yuen-ting, the first female football coach to win a top-flight men's championship, also expressed her support for the programme by appearing on a video.
The Scheme was launched at the CoP Summit last October and aims at promoting a mentoring culture in the community to help youths from disadvantaged backgrounds to move upward in society, thereby reducing intergenerational poverty. It is the second societal engagement campaign promoting youth upward mobility by the CoP following the "Future Stars" programme. So far, about 900 volunteers from government departments, public bodies, major enterprises and more have joined the programme to be mentors for over 1 000 students from 56 local secondary schools. The Scheme has also arranged about 1 000 short-term job tasting opportunities with government departments, public bodies and private firms during this summer holiday to allow senior secondary school students to know about real-life workplaces and gain exposure to and information on various trades and industries. The Scheme has also commissioned a consultant to draw up a set of operation and training manuals on mentoring activities, which will serve as an operational reference for schools and organisations implementing career-focused mentoring programmes.
At her speech, Mrs Lam thanked all the participating parties for their enthusiastic support, which has been pivotal to the successful implementation of the Scheme. She also expressed her gratitude to Dr Choi for leading the Mentorship Programme Working Group, as well as to the AVS and the Hong Kong Quality Mentorship Network, which have been assisting in implementing the Scheme, and participating mentors, schools and public and private organisations.
Details of the Scheme, the above-mentioned manuals on mentoring activities and relevant information can be accessed at the Scheme's website (www.lifebuddies.hk/en). The Scheme has also set up a social network page (www.facebook.com/lifebuddieshk) for sharing relevant information.
Ends/Saturday, July 9, 2016
Issued at HKT 13:22
NNNN