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District Highlights 2019-20

Love Your Neighbour and Care for One Another

  • The Sha Tin District Social Welfare Office (District Social Welfare Office) continued to organise the Green Ribbon Campaign with welfare service units and local community groups through cross-service and cross-sector collaboration to promote a caring community. Embracing the theme of “Cherish Yourself, Cherish Your Neighbours”, the District Social Welfare Office launched various programmes in 2019-20 to encourage welfare service units in the district to promote positive thinking, mutual help and self-resilience by means of art, play and sports. With a multi-dimensional collaborative platform, the District Social Welfare Office strengthened the connection and co-operation among welfare service units and local organisations in the district by organising large-scale programmes and concern visits. Apart from introducing welfare services, volunteers were mobilised to visit underprivileged households in public housing estates such as Shui Chuen O Estate and Sun Chui Estate to provide care and support to residents. With the completion of new housing estates in Sha Tin in recent years, the District Social Welfare Office had set up working groups with welfare units serving Shek Mun Estate and Chun Yeung Estate to formulate strategies and action plans. These included distributing welcome packs with information on welfare services and community resources, conducting regular roving exhibitions in the estates, organising orientation tours and large-scale festive celebrations/carnivals, etc. so as to help residents familiarise with community resources and facilitate their early adjustment to the new environment. To provide further support in new housing estates and strengthen mutual support network in the neighbourhood, the District Social Welfare Office also actively promoted and supported the implementation of Community Investment and Inclusion Fund projects by local organisations providing welfare services.

Care for People Around You and Strengthen Family Functions

  • Having the objectives of building family cohesion and strengthening family functions, the District Social Welfare Office had been in close liaison with welfare service units and local groups in the district to organise the “Hand-in-Hand” mutual support group, the “Rainbow Journey” marital group and a large-scale programme “Happy Families Month” in 2019-20, with a total attendance of 1 400 participants. A short promotional video titled “You In, then Out” was produced, and a carnival programme “To Have More Love” and various group activities were organised to convey the messages of promoting effective communication among family members and showing concern to them. A total of 1 600 people participated in these events. For support services for separated and divorced families, the District Social Welfare Office arranged a visit to the newly established Specialised Co-Parenting Support Centre and organised a number of briefing sessions and training workshops on child custody and co-parenting for social workers and school personnel in the district so as to enhance their professional knowledge and sensitivity in handling these cases. More than 600 people participated in these events. Moreover, to step up public education, the District Social Welfare Office organised parent educational seminars on co-parenting and set up mobile consultation counters by using mobile promotional vans to further promote co-parenting to about 2 400 people in the district. To sustain our efforts on combating domestic violence, the District Social Welfare Office conducted 2 training sessions on handling suspected child abuse cases for 140 social workers and teachers. A number of programmes were also organised for high-conflict families, including an intervention programme for male batterers, a talk on marital relationship and a child-centred expressive arts therapeutic group, to further promote the Educational Programme on Stopping Domestic Violence and support children who have families with marital discord or suffer from domestic violence. About 200 people participated in the programmes.

Promote Mental Well-being and Care in the Community

  • In response to the series of social incidents in 2019, the District Social Welfare Office collaborated with welfare service units in the district to launch the “Sha Tin Care & Share Street Corner” from October to December 2019 for promoting the mental well-being of the community. Street counters were set up at 10 densely populated spots in the district to provide immediate emotional support and referral services for residents, with mobile promotional vans for distributing information leaflets and cheer-up cards, conducting preliminary screening, organising experiential activities and providing on-site preliminary counselling service, etc. In 2019-20, the District Social Welfare Office provided funding for 3 special child care centres and 4 integrated vocational rehabilitation services centres to implement a total of 7 collaborative projects, with a view to enhancing support to the elderly with disabilities, children with special needs and their parents/carers, and helping them create joyful experience and alleviate their stress through activities.
  • To echo the Department’s “Dementia Friendly Community Campaign” which has been launched since September 2018, a “Dementia Friends” Information Session and a Dementia Friends Ambassadors Workshop were organised in March 2019 and April 2019 respectively to enhance the awareness and concern of the public and the sector towards dementia, promote messages about dementia, and build a dementia friendly community.

Career Development and Mental Wellness of Young People

  • In 2019-20, the District Social Welfare Office, in collaboration with the Local Committee on Services for Young People and the Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Sha Tin), launched a job shadowing programme “Weaving Dreams in the Care Career”, in which young people in the district were recruited to undergo training and job shading placements in elderly and rehabilitation service units. The participating young people acquired knowledge about working with the elderly and persons with disabilities, which in turn facilitated their future plans for career development and raised their concern for these disadvantaged groups. Meanwhile, another district programme on promoting mental wellness of young people was carried out in collaboration with local secondary schools. The programme offered training for the participating young people to promote their awareness in mental health and related community resources so that they could help their peers and themselves when necessary. A series of sharing sessions and orientation programmes were also arranged to help school social workers and guidance teachers in Sha Tin District to meet challenges of the new school year and develop a collaborative network in the district. The topics included the procedures and sharing on handling suspected child abuse cases, introduction of mental health services available in the district and sharing with clinical psychologists on handling emotional/mental health issues of students

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