The Hong Kong Council of Social Service

The Hong Kong Council of Social Service
Formation 1947
Type Non-governmental organisation
Headquarters Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Members
370
Leader Ms. Christine M. S. FANG
Website hkcss.org.hk/index_e.asp/

The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS) (Chinese: 香港社會服務聯會﹝簡稱社聯﹞) is a council co-ordinating NGOs in the social service field in Hong Kong, established in 1947. The Hong Kong Council of Social Service, an umbrella organisation of over 340 social service organisations, is committed to promoting the development of social welfare, and in close collaboration with various sectors building a just, caring and inclusive society.

Mission

To promote the development of social welfare together with its member agencies, through:

History

In 1951 became a statutory body. There are more than 370 institutional members, more than 3,000 service units providing social welfare service to over 90% of the Hong Kong population. HKCSS committed social justice, fairness, and certainly people have natural rights, and the community has the responsibility to provide every citizen with basic social and economic resources; individuals have had an obligation to fulfill to the family and social responsibility, self-reliance, self-fulfilment.

1950s

Emergency relief to refugees

1960s

Pioneering services to meet social needs

1970s

Partnership towards better welfare

1980s

Leadership in local & international community

1990s

Synergy to promote social development

Scope of work

HKCSS has two major types of services: "Member service and Professional Aid" and ""Social Service". Member service and Professional Aid is divided into five different sectors of work: Sector Development & Partnership, Service Development, Quality Management & Efficiency Enhancement, Policy Research & Advocacy and International & Regional Networking. And Social Service is divided into four categories: Children & Youth, Elderly, Family and Communities and Rehabilitation.

Sector development & partnership

Service development

Quality management & efficiency enhancement

Policy research & advocacy

International & regional networking

Children & youth

Elderly

Family and communities

Rehabilitation

Core business

It is a part describing the core businesses of HKCSS in details. Some of them are already mentioned in 'Scope of Work'. There are totally six different types of core businesses, including Sector development and partnership, Service Development, Policy research and advocacy, International and regional networking, Information Technology Service Centre and HKCSS-HSBC Social Enterprise Business Centre.

1. Sector development and partnership

2. Service development

A. Children and youth service

It is responsible for development of Children & Youth service. It liaises agency members to discuss and comment on policy issues, provides platform for agencies to share on experience so as to enhance service quality in response to the needs of young people.

B. Elderly service

C. Family and community service

It is responsible for the development of services, including family, community development, new arrivals, ethnic minorities and substance abuse. It now has 165 registered member agencies. A paper on the existing family and community situation and services is available for download.

D. Rehabilitation service

The Hong Kong Joint Council for People with Disabilities is the umbrella body of non-governmental organisations for and of persons with disabilities in Hong Kong. It was granted exemption of registration under the Societies Ordinance (cap. 151) in October 1965. The aims of the Joint Council are to promote the co-ordination and improvement of services and facilities for persons with disabilities, participate in policy review and formulation, conduct public education and develop new rehabilitation programmes. It also plays an important role in the local and international rehabilitation field. As the objectives of the Joint Council are similar to the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), the Joint Council was incorporated into the HKCSS and became the Rehabilitation Division of HKCSS in November 1965. Further to the 2001 organizational review and re-structuring of HKCSS, it has been agreed that such partnership relationship shall be maintained and, from December the same year onward the Management Committee of Joint Council would be equivalent to the Rehabilitation Specialized Committee of HKCSS.

3. Policy research and advocacy

It is an aspect to collect data on social development, so as to understand and predict the trend of social development, conduct scientific research on policies which have an influential impact on welfare and social development, advocate for justice and rational public and social policies, maintain regular dialogue with policy makers, monitor the implementation of policies proposed by HKCSS. The events include Civil Service Summit on Urban Renewal, Seminar on Job Creation at District Level, Civic Sidewalk Issue and the Young Policy Analyst Program (YPAP).

4. International and regional networking

Major Work of International and Regional Networking International and Regional Networking is one of the core businesses of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. The mission of the Core Business is to help the Council to achieve its strategic goals by building networks, pooling external resources, introducing different and diverse visions, and consolidating knowledge and experiences from overseas and the Mainland. Through interactive processes, the CB functions to facilitate the local welfare sector to keep abreast of and participate in the international agenda on social welfare and social development so that it can enjoy more resources for making their own rational and informed decisions for the short and long term development of social welfare and social development in Hong Kong.

5. Information technology service centre

The aims of the centre include the enhancement of the ICT capacitiy of NGOs, the exploration, experiments and promotion of ways to deploy ICT in sector and the promotion of digital inclusion and equitable ICT policies in information society. There are six different services provided, which are Products and Services, Workplace IT Skill Training, Web Services, Secondment, System Development and Consultation Services.

6. HKCSS-HSBC Social Enterprise Business Centre

It is a program jointly sponsored by the Hong Kong Bank Foundation and Partnership Fund for the Disadvantaged of Social Welfare Department, HKCSS-HSBC Social Enterprise Business Centre (SEBC) of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service is a new initiative to promote social entrepreneurship, advance social innovation, synergise social enterprises' resources, network social conscious business executives and make a positive social change.

Partnership

The Council has initiated cross-sectoral collaboration projects to bring together wisdom, resources and efforts from the business sector, professional groups, policy makers and the Government in areas of service enhancement, NGOs capacity building and benefiting disadvantaged groups.

Caring Company Scheme is one of the major partnership program. Others included co-operation with RTHK, HSBC, tertiary institutions, etc.

Caring Company Logo

Committees

(updated to 2010)

See also

External links

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