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District Highlights 2019-20

Sham Shui Po Well-being Movement

  • The Sham Shui Po District Social Welfare Office (District Social Welfare Office) collaborated with a number of local organisations to launch the annual flagship programme, “Sham Shui Po Well-Being Movement” , which aimed to instill positive psychology and promote the themes of gratitude, hope, resilience and open-mindness in the community. Echoing the department’s “Dementia Friendly Community Campaign”, the theme of the Movement in 2019-20 was “Walk with You”, with a view to encouraging members of the community to show care and concern for those needy persons around them. Various programmes were launched for persons with dementia and needy carers, and thematic souvenirs were produced and distributed to all the participants. To facilitate the public have a good grasp of community resources and promote mutual support in the neighbourhood, the District Social Welfare Office co-ordinated and designed an e-leaflet containing information on related supportive services and activities for persons with dementia and needy carers in the community. The e-leaflet was distributed to welfare services units, public health institutions, the Housing Department and other local organisations for sharing with their service users. In view of the epidemic situation, some useful information on webpages were also included in the leaflet to encourage the public to make good use of their time, train their body and mind, and enhance their resilience.

Caring for Inclusion

  • Since 2015, the District Social Welfare Office has launched the “Private Elderly Homes and Disabled Homes Volunteer Services Projects” with a view to encouraging different sectors and service groups in the district to provide regular volunteer services to residents of private residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) and persons with disabilities (RCHDs), showing love and concern to them, and promoting social inclusion. In 2019-20, the District Social Welfare Office collaborated with 15 local organisations to provide volunteer services for 25 private RCHEs and 7 private RCHDs. During the visits, apart from sending love and blessings to the residents, the volunteers enjoyed doing exercise and singing songs together with them. Since May 2018, a private taxi company has joined the volunteer service in the district proactively to provide free, safe and point-to-point transportation services to wheelchair-bounded residents of private RCHEs and RCHDs who have financial difficulties.
  • Since 2017, the District Social Welfare Office has also set up the “Platform on Strengthening Support to Private Residential Care Homes for Persons with Disabilities” to provide relevant support services to private RCHDs and their residents, including rehabilitation service, casework counselling service, and training for staff of RCHDs, etc. by lining up rehabilitation service units in the district to strengthen mutual collaboration. Various large-scale programmes, such as talent shows, games stalls, singing contests, sport games and cheering team competitions, were organised to encourage residents in private RCHDs to maintain a healthy living and connect with the community. At present, all private RCHDs in the district have joined the Platform, and the activities and programmes received enthusiastic response from the staff and residents of the private RCHDs.

Building Social Capital through Partnership

  • In recent years, a number of new public rental housing projects have been completed in Sham Shui Po district. In order to support the new residents, the District Social Welfare Office has collaborated with the Housing Department and invited service units providing core welfare services in the proximity of the new estates as well as other NGOs granted with funding support from the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to set up collaborative platforms for each new housing estate under the “New Estate Partnership Programme”. The aims are to help residents build up a support network and cohesive community, and identify persons and families who are in need of welfare services at an early stage, thereby enhancing the sense of belonging among residents to the community, promoting the spirit of mutual help and building an inclusive society. In 2019-20, the New Estate Partnership Programme served the new residents of So Uk Estate Phase 2, Lai Tsui Court and Shek Kip Mei Estate Phase 6.
  • Since 2009, the District Social Welfare Office has collaborated with local welfare organisations to launch 2 Community Networking Projects namely , “Caring Nam Cheong” and “Neighbour Support”. The projects aim to identify needy families and persons living in private housing in Sham Shui Po and Cheung Sha Wan, including those living in sub-divided units, and refer them to mainstream services as appropriate through various outreaching means, including home visits, networking programmes and distribution of resources booklets. The projects also help residents get to know each other and build a neighbourhood support network for mutual help. The “Caring Nam Cheong” Community Networking Project took a step further to build the network of “Caring SSP Shops” so as to strengthen the neighbourhood network and build a community with mutual help and support. In 2019-20, the 2 projects successfully reached 5 000 residents living in private housing, with 80 needy families identified and arranged to receive appropriate follow-up services.

Promoting Mental Wellness and Life Planning

  • Since 2015, the District Social Welfare Office has joined hands with a number of social welfare organisations in the district to launch the “Life Education Programme”, with a view to promoting the message of “Love Life, Love the People around You” through a series of programmes. In 2019-20, the District Social Welfare Office jointly launched the Programme with 14 organisations under the theme of concerning the mental health of children and youth. Street counters were set up in different times and places in the district to launch public education programmes, promote the message of life cherishment and raise the awareness of the public on mental health. Besides, professional trainings were provided to 300 primary and secondary teachers to enhance their awareness on children and youth mental health and skills in handling such problems so that needy students could be identified at an early stage , and appropriate support could be provided to them. Meanwhile, teachers could also pay more attention to their mental health. 60 students from the City University of Hong Kong were recruited to participate in life education and training programmes. By providing opportunities for students to receive training, it was hoped that the “Peer Support Programme” could be implemented in tertiary institutions to provide emotional support to their peers. Moreover, the seminars with the themes of “positive family communication” and “harmonious parent-child interaction” received positive feedback from parents.
  • In 2019, the District Social Welfare Office continued to co-operate with the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, the Hong Kong Small and Medium Enterprises Development Institute and NGOs to launch the “Job Shadowing Mentorship Project” . With the support of the Department’s Sub-Committee on Promotion of Corporate Volunteering, 50 senior managers or founders of enterprises were recruited as volunteer mentors and matched with 101 young persons coming from underprivileged families. The mentors arranged their mentees to visit their workplaces during summer time so that these young persons could be more familiar with the operation of different enterprises or industries. Meanwhile, the Project facilitated the mentors to incorporate volunteerism in their workplaces. Through sharing by the mentors of their career paths, their ups and downs and their ways to success, the youth mentees were inspired of their life goals and planning.

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