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District Highlights 2020-21

Together, We Care for the Community

  • The Sha Tin District Social Welfare Office (District Social Welfare Office) continued to organise the Green Ribbon Campaign jointly with welfare service units and local community groups through cross-service and cross-sector collaboration to promote a caring community. Embracing the theme of “We Together, Shore Up Sha Tin”, the District Social Welfare Office launched a variety of programmes in 2020-21 to promote positive messages, such as mutual help in neighbourhood and self-resilience, etc. Community care activities were also organised for residents of various housing estates, including Sha Kok Estate, Sun Tin Wai Estate and Chun Shek Estate.
  • In light of the COVID-19 epidemic, the District Social Welfare Office co-ordinated different welfare service agencies to distribute donated anti-epidemic materials, including face masks, rice, oil, noodles and hand sanitisers, etc. to needy families and vulnerable groups.
  • With the completion of new housing estates in Sha Tin, the District Social Welfare Office worked together with social and welfare service units serving Shek Mun Estate and Chun Yeung Estate to formulate action plans. To facilitate the residents’ early adjustment to the new environment and help them get familiarised with the community resources, the District Social Welfare Office organised a series of activities, including distribution of welcome packs to promote social welfare services and community resources, regular roving exhibitions, orientation tours and carnivals, etc. The District Social Welfare Office also fully supported welfare service agencies to implement the “Community Investment and Inclusion Fund” Project in new housing estates to strengthen support and mutual support network in the neighbourhood.

Strengthening Support to Families and Child Protection

  • Tsung Tsin Mission of Hong Kong Joyful Place, subsidised by SWD as a standalone child care centre located in Shek Mun Estate, commenced service in March 2021. The centre provides 105 full day child care places to children aged 0-3 years for relieving their working parents’ child care stress.
  • With a view to enhancing child protection services, the District Social Welfare Office organised “Talk on Young Children and You - Parenting Capacity Assessment Framework”, “Seminar on Child Protection Work - Challenges Facing Families with SEN Children” and “Briefing Session on the Revised Version of the Procedural Guide for Handling Child Abuse Cases cum Sharing Session on Handling Child Maltreatment Case” in 2020-21 to strengthen professional sensitivity of social workers and related professional counterparts in the district (including teachers and medical staff) towards child protection as well as enhancing cross-sector collaboration.
  • The District Social Welfare Office has continuously promoted the Educational Programme on “Stopping Domestic Violence” and organised “Building Harmonious Family” learning group for men, “Hand-in-Hand” mutual aid group for women who experienced domestic violence as well as a couple of lectures on marital relationship. A child-centred expressive arts therapeutic group, namely “Artwalker” was also conducted to help children from families with domestic violence to properly handle their own negative emotions.
  • To strengthen support for divorced/separated families, the District Social Welfare Office organised “co-parenting” support groups to facilitate the communication and co-operation of divorced/separated couples on issues related to parenting, promoted co-parenting messages through mobile counters and arranged for frontline workers to visit and exchange work experience at the newly established “Parent Child LINK Specialised Co-parenting Support Centre”.
  • The District Social Welfare Office co-ordinated with welfare service units closely in the district and organised a number of activities to promote harmonious families, including developmental groups on the restructuring of family and spousal interactions, educational activities on positive parent-child communication and family volunteer programmes.

Promoting Care and Support to the Elderly, Disabled and Their Carers

  • The District Social Welfare Office lined up over 40 organisations/units, including elderly services units, medical professionals, education institutions, relevant government departments and NGOs to form the “Walk with Dementia Alliance”, organising 2 professional sharing sessions to facilitate professional training and community education, as well as enhancing collaboration to support demented elders and their carers. The District Social Welfare Office also produced a set of calendars with information on elderly services in Sha Tin and organised the “Sha Tin District Commendation Scheme for Carers of the Elderly”. Interviews with the commended carers were edited and compiled into video clips and were broadcast online to arouse public concern and attention to the needs of carers.
  • Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, the disabled reduced their outdoor activities. To energise them and create opportunities for them to link with others, the District Social Welfare Office organised “Draw and Share” and “Online Games Day” for service users of the rehabilitation units in Sha Tin. The District Social Welfare Office also strived to strengthen support to carers of the disabled through launching the “Angels for the Disabled Families Scheme” in which volunteers were recruited and matched with families with the disabled to provide continuous support to these families.

Nurturing Our Young People, Fostering Whole-person Development

  • The District Social Welfare Office, in collaboration with the Local Committee on Services for Young People as well as the HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education and NGOs working for the youth in the district, launched a job shadowing programme, namely “Weaving Dreams in the Care Career”, in which young people studying in F.1 to F.3 in the district were recruited. Through various training activities, the participating young people gained knowledge about the working environment and prospects of elderly and rehabilitation care services.
  • With collaborative efforts with local secondary schools, the District Social Welfare Office organised a district programme for promoting mental wellness of young people. The programme offered training for the participating young people to enhance their understanding in mental health and related community resources so that they can help their peers and themselves. Besides, a sharing session cum orientation programme was arranged for facilitating mutual co-operation between school social workers and service units working for youth’s mental health.

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