| The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups | |
|---|---|
| 香港青年協會 | |
| Established | 1960 |
| Type | Non-governmental organisation |
| Location | Hong Kong, China |
| Website | HKFYG Homepage |
| The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 香港青年協會 | ||
| Simplified Chinese | 香港青年协会 | ||
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Founded in 1960, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG, Traditional Chinese: 香港青年協會) is one of the largest non-profit making organizations in Hong Kong committed to develop youth services. Throughout the years, the Federation has provided a wide variety of services, activities and facilities for the physical, social, educational, cultural development of the new generations, striving for meeting the needs of Hong Kong’s youth. Their services can be divided into twelve core areas. Each year, HKFYG offers more than 10,000 activities organized by over 60 service units with 5 million participants annually [1]. Recently, HKFYG took an active role in anti-drug compaign in secondary schools in Hong Kong. They have made 30000 "Anti-drug in School Resources Packs" and distributed them to secondary schools.[2] "Decoding Life" is also a new conseling service provided by HKFYG. It helps teenagers to avoid group violence and teaches them conflict handling skills.[3]
The ultimate goal of HKFYG is to help young people to fully live their potential and develop well physically, socially, educationally and culturally based[4]. They accomplish this by setting up helping and caring networks, launching various activities and participating in educational work. Innovative facilities and services are constantly updated to meet the ever changing trends and hence best accommodate teenagers need.
As the mission of HKFYG is to help young people to grow and develop as all-round individuals, they offer services in all aspects. Counselling, parenting, online assistance, leadership training are few examples of the services provided by HKFYG which are teenager-based.
HKFYG also wants to raise the public awareness concerning issues about teenagers. They have published magazines every half year reporting the findings of the research on the latest phenomena or trends among young people[5].
The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups was founded in 1960 by George Stokes, who was sent to Hong Kong by the British Christian Welfare Council to develop local youth services[6]. Later in 1962, it was officially established as a society registered under the Societies Ordinance (Cap 151)[7]. In the first decade, the organization mainly collaborated with other youth organizations in delivering youth services.
The Federation was incorporated in 1970 under the Provisions of the Companies Ordinance[8].
In 1970, the Youth Counselling Centre was established, targeting young people with emotional and adjustment problems. Three service units, School Social Work, Outreaching Social Work, and Family Life Education, also came into full service in late 70s. The Federation's Constitution was revised in 1981. Several China and overseas Youth Exchange projects and Study Tours were launched since the mid 1980s to enhance the young people's understanding towards China and their international exposures. In 1989, the self-financed Tsuen Wan Indoor Sports Centre, a joint venture with the Hong Kong Housing Society, was established[9].
In 1993, Youthline (關心一線) was officially set up by the organization. It is the first ever counseling hotline service in Hong Kong, subvented by the Government. In 1996, two Small Group Homes (兒童之家) were established to provide rehabilitation services for mildly mentally handicapped children and teenagers between the ages of 6 and 18. In 1998, the territory-wide Youth Volunteer Network was established to promote volunteerism among young people. The Federation began a modernization process to its youth centres since the late 1990s.
The Dragon Foundation was jointly established by the Federation, the Home Affairs Bureau of HKSAR (traditional chinese:民政事務局), and the Home Affairs Department (traditional chinese:民政事務總署) in 2000[10], with the vision to facilitate networks among Chinese youth worldwide[11].
In the same year, Leadership 21 was established to offer a variety of comprehensive leadership training programmes for young people. In 2002, all youth centres, teenager centres and integrated youth service centres were re-named Youth S.P.O.T. (traditional chinese: 青年空間), meaning the Space for Participation, Opportunities and Training. On 29 May 2004, the organization hosted its first ever Flag Day [12]. The Hong Kong Melody Makers(香港旋律), a youth choir, was formed in the same year with sponsorship from The Dragon Foundation. [13].
Education
Two schools were built under the Federation with donation from Lee Shau-kee. The first primary school began in 2000, the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Lee Shau Kee Primary School(香港青年協會李兆基小學), located in Tin Shui Wai[14]. The second school, the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Lee Shau Kee College(HLC)(香港青年協會李兆基書院), was opened on 26 April 2006[15] as an English medium DSS school[16].
On 19 December 2008, its 28-storey headquarters, the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Building (香港青年協會大廈) located on Pak Fuk Road, North Point, was officially opened[17]. Later in the year, the Federation started its quarterly journal, Youth Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Building (traditional chinese:香港青年協會大廈; abbr.:青協大廈) is a 28-storey social service complex located on 21 Pak Fuk Road, North Point, Hong Kong, next to the Quarry Bay MTR Station. The opening ceremony was hold on 19 December 2008[17].
The Building accommodates the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Head Office, as well as some sub-units of the Social Welfare Department and head offices of 9 other social service agencies and organisations. It is equipped with various facilities and amenities, including a 434-seat auditorium, two multi-function theatres, a multi-media youth and children’s learning centre, meeting rooms[18], as well as the Café 21, the first Youth Social Enterprise Project launched by the Federation[19]. The facilities are available to social service organizations and the public for booking.
| Position | Information of the responsible person |
|---|---|
| Patron | The Hon. Donald Tsang Yam-Kuen (traditional chinese:曾蔭權), GBM Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region |
| Vice Patron | Sir T. L. Yang (traditional chinese:楊鐵樑), GBM JP |
| Vice Patron | Mr. George H. Stokes, MBE |
The Council consists of the President, Vice President, Honorary Treasurer, Honorary Secretary, Executive Director, Deputy Executive Directors and Members.
The seven Committees of the Federation[20] are:
The Committee members are responsible for different area of the Federation to maintain its operation.
There are different kind of membership, including child, youth, senior and parent. After registered as a member, people can get involved into a wide range of activities and services. They can also receive bi-weekly publications to update the news of the organisation. Outstanding members and volunteers will be nominated to participate in local and overseas competitions and exchange programmes.
The Federation focuses on providing 12 core services with more than 60 units in operation.
The Federation has 22 Youth S.P.O.T.s (traditional Chinese: 青年空間] around the territory, equipped with latest facilities where young people can learn and play. They are originally the Youth Centers, renovated and renamed in 2002 as S.P.O.T., meaning "places that provide young people with the Space for Participation, Opportunities and Training"[21].
Out of the 22 Youth S.P.O.T.s, 13 were renovated with support from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charity Trust, and were thus named under the Hong Kong Jockey Club[22].
Different from the other 21 Youth S.P.O.Ts, Youth S.P.O.T. 21 is located in the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Building, with a special focus on advanced multi-media learning and exploration. There are three specialised rooms: Y-Digital (traditional chinese: 數碼空間), a collaboration project with Microsoft to provide computer literacy education to the community; Y-Media (traditional chinese: 媒體空間), equipped with the latest filming and editing facilities; and Y-Music (traditional chinese: 音樂空間), providing advanced musical and vocal facilities for professional recording.
u21.hk (traditional chinese: 青年網站 u21) provides young people with diverse information about jobs, study, volunteering, leisure, and other interactive and multimedia channels such as online forum and online game. Two e-newsletters, "YXPRESS" (traditional chinese:「青速遞」) and "TEENSPRESS" (traditional chinese:「Teen速遞」), are issued to its registered members of over 270,000[23].
u21.hk was voted twice as one of the Meritorious Websites as "healthy and informative" in 2007 and 2008 Meritorious Website Contest (traditional chinese:優秀網站選舉), organised by the Television and Entertainment Licensing Authority (traditional chinese:影視及娛樂事務管理處) and the Education Bureau(traditional Chinese: 教育局) [24][25].
The Tsuen Wan Indoor Sports Centre was established in 1989 as a joint venture with the Hong Kong Housing Society. The centre concentrates on nine series of training courses for its members, which included sports, dancing, music, wushu, academics, information technology, experiential learning, language development and creativity programmes for children. Two Outdoor Activities Centres were built in Tai Mei Tuk and Stanley for daytime activities. Two camp sites, Lamma Youth Camp and Jockey Club Sai Kung Outdoor Training Camp, are provided with accommodation[26].
The HKFYG Hong Kong Melody Makers (香港旋律)is a youth choir formed in 2004 by the Federation with sponsorship from The Dragon Foundation. The team consists of several small a cappella ensembles[27]. In 2009, members of the choir won the 3rd Asian Youth A Cappella Singing Competition in South Korea[28].
The HKFYG Hong Kong Youth Dance (香港起舞) was formed in 2008, with a focus on Hip Hop, Jazz Funk and Modern Dance. The dancers are of ages between 15 to 25.
The Federation provides various counseling services, including hotline, face-to-face, web-based counseling and school-based social workers services.
The Youth Counseling Centre was established since the foundation of the Federation. It is now located on the 5th floor in the HKFYG Building. Counsellors are professionally trained social workers, offering support through the telephone (Youthline) or the internet (MSN).
Youthline is the first ever hotline counselling service provided in Hong Kong. It was set up by the Youth Counseling Centre in 1993, funded by the Social Welfare Department.
Seeing that the internet has become a fundamental element of teenagers' lives, the Federation set up the Centre for Internet Addiction to promote a healthy habit on using the Internet. A student supporting campaign was launched from 2006 to 2008 to help the Internet-addicts. "Play WISER" was the slogan of the campaign, meaning Well-balanced, Intellectual, Safe, Executive and Rejoice.[29]
Legalization of soccer gambling in Hong Kong leads to an increase in the number of gamblers. As a result, the Center was established in 1 February 2007 with monetary sponsorship from Ping Wo Fund of the Home Affairs Bureau to provide counselling and treatment services to pathological gamblers and their families members. In addition, it is to promote the anti-gambling to the public, particularly the youth, to prevent them from addicting to gamble and to develop a healthy life by offering different activities. Community program and outreach services are conducted to care for the needy.[30]
The program is started in 2002 to provide in-school counseling service in primary schools for primary schools' students to solve academic, family, inter-personal, economic and other kinds of problems for which they cannot tackle with. Professional advice is offered by Federation's guidance teams formed by clinical psychologist and registered youth work officers. On the other hand, the team would also work with the schools and the parents to share the views on supporting students and to build up a friendly relationship between students and, the schools and the parents.[31]
Students from 38 schools in Hong Kong have received counseling service from the School Social Work Unit and in 11 Youth S.P.O.T in 2006-2007. It is responsible to solve students' problems on personal, family and academic problems while to assist the schools in offering learning opportunities and teaching materials to students to widen their horizon. Paths to Adulthood is a 3-year program co-organized by the Federation, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charity Trust, Social Welfare Department and Education Bureau. The program appoints 5 local universities to research on a sustainable all-rounded youth development program in order to provide an improved service to secondary schools' students. Besides, teachers, parents and social workers are trained to help develop the potential of the youth.
Under the Outreaching Social Work Unit are the two social work teams (外展社工隊):
They target at vulnerable youth who need immediate attention and help, dealing with their personal, emotional, family, academic, employment, drug and gambling problems. Extended Service for Young Night Difters is also provided by the Unit. The Youth Support Scheme (青年支援服務計劃)specifically provides counselling for those who have been cautioned under the Police Superintendents' Discretionary Scheme (警司警誡令計劃).
The Federation has established two kindergartens, a primary school and a secondary school to provide education services. The two Ching Lok Kindergarten cum Nursery (traditional chinese: 青樂幼稚園 及 幼兒園) were founded in 1997 in Sai Wan Ho[32] and 1999 in Yau Ma Tei[33]. Day nurseries and occasional child care service are provided.
In April 2008, the Kindergarten in Yau Ma Tei was advised to suspend classes for one week upon receiving reports of 47 students and one staff having fever with respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms amidst outbreaks of influenza [34].
The primary school founded in 2002, the Lee Shau Kee Primary School (香港青年協會李兆基小學), is located in Tin Shui Wai. The secondary school, Lee Shau Kee College (香港青年協會李兆基書院), is as an English medium DSS school opened in 2008. Both schools were built with funding from Lee Shau-kee.
The Continuous Learning Centre (traditional chinese: 持續進修中心) is located in Youth S.P.O.T. 21 inside the HKFYG Building. The centre promotes lifelong education and gives young people a continuous learning platform.
The Youth Employment Network (YEN) (traditional chinese: 青年就業網絡) came into service in 2003, organizing career expos and is setting up youth social enterprises.
Leadership 21 (traditional chinese:青年領袖發展中心) came into operation in April 2000. During the 9 past years, over 57,000 local students have participated in the leadership training programmes organized by the center[37]. The center has been commissioned by various government brueaux, tertiary institutions and private corporation to organzie such programmes.
In 2006, the Hong Kong 200 Leadership Project was launched. 200 student leaders will be selected every year and receiving intensive training in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
Every year, the Federation organized a number of international and regional schemes, competitions and exchange programmes to encourage youngsters to be creative and fulfill their potential, including:
Over the past 20 years, hundreds of exchange programmes and study tours have been organized to the Mainland under the "Discovering the Dragon" Series, and to overseas countries under the "Discovering the World" Series, providing opportunities for young people to understand China and to build up global vision.
The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups' Lee Shau Kee Youth Exchange Fund is set up as a separate trust to promote and finance exchange activities for young people.
6 Family Life Education Units (家庭生活教育組) are established in Kowloon City, Tai Po, Yuen Long, Wanchai, and Kwai Tsing. The Units intend to create harmonious and loving relationships among family members by teaching them communication skills and giving them support. Mediation will be employed in emergency situations.
The HKFYG Parent-child Mediation Centre is situated in Tin Yuet Estate, Tin Shui Wai in Yuen Long District[38].
To assure a deep understanding of teenagers, the Federation established a research centre that runs polls and studies. Reports are constantly released regarding topical issues and over 200 reports have been released up till now. The topics vary from the healthy life style of young people to the employment problem of them.[39]
Youth Hong Kong is a journal published by the Federation every three months. It provides medium for the public to discuss, debate, analyze and voice their opinion on youth's issues.
The Youth Volunteer Network(VNET) is established in 1998. Its aim is to promote the development of territory-wide volunteer service in Hong Kong and to encourage young people to participate in voluntary work. More than 110000 young people have registered to be the member of this network. 4 million hours of voluntary service hour have been accumulated throughout the years. Different kinds of services and training programs are offered by the Federation[40].
With a demand for all-rounded development of the youth, volunteer services are getting popular in Hong Kong to help establish the moral standard of teenagers. Many non-profit making organizations set up volunteer programs to provide them opportunities to broaden horizon. The Federation set up the Youth Volunteer Network (VNET) in 1998 [41] to meet the needs of the societal development. In 2005, the Network was sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and was renamed as Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Project Grant- Youth Volunteer Network.[42]
The program is to encourage a social involvement of the youth. Through participating in the Network, they can contribute to society and to serve the district by giving hands to the needy. By joining different kinds of activities organized by the Federation of Hong Kong Youth Groups or other affiliated clubs[43], the youth can develop a healthy social life and to balance their time between studies and pastime.
In addition, it is to promote the volunteerism in Hong Kong from the youth to the public. The youth plays as the role models to advertise the habit of performing voluntary work to numerous areas, from their family members and to the public, to maintain a harmonious society.
Moreover, it is a way to train the youth to be the pillar of the society on their ability to compromise, co-operate, self-manage, analyze in order to prepare for the future to face challenges and difficulties.
The program mainly recruits participants aged between 6 to 35[44]. Under a similar societal background between volunteers and the activities participants, a friendly relationship is formed by mutually sharing their own experience. Interest persons can register as volunteers from different units of the Federation such as the U21, a subsidiary of the Federation.
To enlarge the volunteer base, volunteers are also recruited from educational institutions, such as kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, tertiary educational institutions[45], and the corporate[46]. This is a way to form a link between the Federation and numerous societal organizations.
In order to make the program interesting, a flexible system and network is built to provide all kinds of activities for the youth to choose from according to their interests, time and skills. Volunteers join on a continuing basis from small-scale to large scale activities with all ranges in the Network. For example, young music-lovers joined the 5th Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival and the World Children's Choir Festival in 2005[47] as volunteers to serve the guests and performers from different countries to share their interests.
Some international volunteers programs are also provided. The Federation holds the Global Youth Service Day started by Youth Service America and Global Youth Action Network in April and International Volunteer Day declared by the United Nations in December. Activities are co-organized worldwide to enable an international exchange and celebration of voluntary service. Volunteers in the Earth Hour would encourage the public to turn the lights off for one hour.
A reward system called the 5-level Badges award system was set up to recognize the effort made by the youth volunteer. The number of the service hours is the criterion to evaluate the performance of the volunteers. Volunteers contributing the most in term of time will be awarded in an annual event called the Annual Volunteer Awarding Ceremony (Traditional Chinese「活得出色」義工嘉許計劃)[48].Besides, they are nominated as the youth ambassadors[49] to share their experience in providing voluntary service in school assembly to promote the spirit and encourage a wider participation of students.
The program accumulates more than 100,000 participants providing over 4,000,000 hours of service. On average, 500,000 hours are provided each year from volunteers. More than 300 organizations join the program as affiliated members.
The program develops certain sub-programs to specifically cater for different participants. Experts working in the program would organize training courses for volunteer teams of private companies, government departments and public corporations such as Motorola, Citic Ka Wah Bank, Hong Kong Cable Television Limited and Rating and Valuation Department to teach the volunteer management to improve the quality of the program and maintain teenagers the heart to serve the public.
Schools and organizations can join as the Friends of VNET (VNET之友)or Heart-to-Heart Project(Traditional Chinese:有心計劃) to show a commitment of organizing students or employees to serve the society not less than 2,000 hours or to donate money for carrying out community activities. During the outbreak of SARS in 2003, Tsunami in South Asia in 2004, Sichuan Earthquake in 2008, etc. are examples to gather volunteers in Hong Kong to give hands to those affected places.
Apart from service, there are various types of activities organised by the Federation for its members. There are over 60 service units organizing more than 10,000 activities every year with 5 million participants involved. Some example of the activities:
Talks and Sharing have been held to boarden the horizons of the members. Famous professionals such as Mr TSANG Chun-wah (Financial Secretary of HKSAR Government)[50], Li Ning(gymnast)[51], Tung Chee Hwa(The first Chief Executive of HKSAR Government), Henry Tang Ying-yen (Chief Secretary of HKSAR Government)[52] and Jasper Tsang Yok-sing(President of Legislative Council) are invited to give sharings and talks. By giving introductions on their professions, awareness of social issues and public affairs of the participants can be enhanced.
Forums are held to provide a communicating platform for teenagers or other members to discuss issues. Topics usually cover public affairs or social issues, e.g. drug abuse problem, the potential development of our country, the opportunities of nowadays teenagers, to give a chance participants to develop their analytical mindset and critical thinking skills in different aspect of those issues.
Scholarship that encouraged teenagers to pursuit further studies (「香港青年協會黃寬洋青少年進修獎勵計劃」)[53] are provided by HKFYG, which also praise the positive attitude of teenagers to pursuit their dreams and goals. The scholarship start its function since 1997 and sponsor students who reach the requirements.
Competitions like Anti-Drug-Abuse Song Writing Competition(Cheer & Music in 2010), a Tug of Charity war(拔．施愛心慈善拔河賽 in 2007)[54] and English Speech Delivery Competition(薈英社國際英語演講比賽總決賽 in 2007)[55] are held. to promote healthy and positive message to the society. The target group of participants of the competitions are often teenagers, which also suits the target service group of HKFYG.
As a non profit-making organization, the Federation organizes many activities every year to solely serve the public. Therefore, a large sum of money is spent to provide the service. To maintain the service, public support is necessary to assist the operation. Donation and sponsor are welcome to continue the Federation’s development.
Small sum of cash donations can be made to the Federation by downloading a donation form from the official website. Payments can be made by cheque, banking transfer,PPS, credit card, charitable bequests for individual donors, matching contributions by organizations and companies, proceeds from private fund-raising events, or the proceeds from the donation boxes placed in donors’ areas. Besides, flay days will be occasionally to collect the donations from the public in Hong Kong. Donations more than HKD$100 can be claimed as a deduction for the tax return.[56]
For larger sum of donations, it is usually made by the private companies. The money donated will be for branding and publicity on big events such as Dragon 100, advertisements in souvenirs, booklets, website and videos by companies. In addition, non-cash donations can be provided in terms of products, services, professional services such as accounting services. The Federation has also applied for subsidies from Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust which donates at an average of more than HKD$1 billion each year to charitable groups and non-governmental organizations. For example, the VNET, a volunteer service scheme was sponsored by the Charities Trust in 2005 and is named under the Trust.
Private corporations may directly get involved in co-organizing the events and activities with the Federations, other than providing cash and non-cash donations. Being the partners of the Federations, dedication and commitment are required since the corporations are responsible to offer assistance and help to the program participants. Expertise, inspiration, advice and ideas from the corporations are valuable to the youth. These can strengthen the quality of the programs of the Federation and enable the teenagers to explore much.
Youth Career Expo is organized by the Federation every year with many corporations providing job opportunities to the youngsters to enhance their job prospects and provide chances for widening horizon and gain job experience.
For flag-selling day, certain corporations offer not only cash donations, but also professional services, such as the deposit of proceeds service by banks and property management companies offering places as temporary office.
In Annual Charity Dinner[57], different corporations donate money as sponsorship and prizes, and place advertisement in the brochures. In addition, there are celebrities invited to the Dinner to share their views and experience with the participating teenagers. The Dinner serves as a bridge between the society and the youth to gain mutual understanding.
Mentorship scheme is always welcome from the corporations providing special and unique experience that may be fresh to teenage participants. The youth can learn from their mentors knowledge and skills that cannot be learnt in school to prepare for the career. Youth Business Hong Kong is one of the programs allowing young people to start their own businesses with the assistance from the experienced businessmen.
The Federation also co-operated with Microsoft to turn Federation’s Space for Participation, Opportunity, and Training (S.P.O.T) Centers into Cyber SPOT Centers. Experts from Microsoft held courses to train the youth, mainly from the underprivileged families and those who had not finished the secondary education, about computer skills to prepare for their future career. Moreover, Microsoft would also help upgrade the computer hardware to improve the operation of SPOT Centers.[58]