CEO's Message

For the last seven decades, Christian Family Service Centre (CFSC) has grown in sync with the overall development of Hong Kong society on various fronts, including family relations, elderly care, rehabilitation, youth, healthcare, education and the environment. This reflects the inextricable link between social service organisations and urban development. As the social landscape continues to evolve, we are taking active steps to respond to social needs by introducing concrete and timely countermeasures, setting out long-term goals for our ten core services, implementing our strategic development plan, equipping our team with the necessary expertise and building a diverse talent pipeline.

This year, we made steady progress in all aspects of our services. By aligning our resources with various needs, we continued to improve and enhance our services in order to ensure their quality and effective results.

Over the past year, our Community Development Services have focused on supporting underprivileged individuals, from improving the community environment to helping transitional housing residents resettle into new lives. The “CRISSCROSS” Social Housing Project, consisting of four projects situated across Cheung Sha Wan and Tseung Kwan O, welcomed its first residents last June before achieving an average occupancy rate of 80%. Each project is overseen by a team of on-site social workers and property managers, whose responsibilities are to support the diverse needs of residents and, through our community network, to identify local resources that can ease the financial burden of relocating. As the residents settled into their new homes, the social work team held various community activities to strengthen local support networks and promote the residents’ self-sufficiency. A notable example was our project in Tseung Kwan O, Yin Ting Terraced Home, which participated in the “JC Project LIFT” programme created and funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to develop a pioneering intervention model for poverty alleviation tailored to the needs of transitional housing residents, in order to strengthen their financial capacities, broaden their social networks and open up new career opportunities.

Our frontline workers have worked extensively with children living in sub-divided units, who often lack access to resources and opportunities due to financial difficulties in their families and cramped living spaces. In light of this, our Locality Development Team launched the “Inspiring Hope – Comprehensive Child Enhancement Programme” with support from Hongkong Land, to offer free tutoring, STEM courses and community exploration activities to students from primary and junior secondary schools living in the sub-divided units in Kwun Tong District. Apart from their learning and personal development needs, the programme also addresses the pressures faced by low-income parents by designing a series of services that holistically care for the physical and mental well-being of families living in sub-divided units.

The 2023 and 2024 Policy Addresses outlined the government’s plan to implement measures in phases, to support carers of the elderly and people with disabilities. As a long-standing supporter of carers, we look forward to helping make these policies happen while continuing to refine our existing services. Last April, with funding from the Health Bureau, our Services for People with Disabilities launched the “Know. Your True Self” – A Carer Emotional Support Programme. The two-year programme uses the TTI-DISC international professional assessment as a behavioural analysis tool that allows carers to better understand themselves and cope with their emotions. In June 2023, Cheerful Place – District Support Centre for Persons with Disabilities (Kwun Tong East) also introduced the two-year “Together We Connect@Carer Inclusion Project” with funding from the HKEX Foundation. Using horticultural therapy, carers are invited on a journey to reshape their values in life and take part in an exploration of everyday wisdom and resilience.

Recognising the unmet demand for post-discharge support services for the elderly and their carers in Wong Tai Sin District, the Lively Elderly Day Training Centre launched the “Welcome Back – New Normal Post- Discharged Support Programme”, a one-year initiative supported by the HSBC HK Community Partnership Programme to provide immediate rehabilitation support for elderly people who have been discharged from hospital and facilitate their smooth transition into long-term care services. The programme has helped lessen the feelings of helplessness experienced by carers by filling the gap in community health care and related services and ensuring a seamless transfer from rehabilitation to long-term care.

In recent years, building a caring and inclusive community has taken centre stage in government agendas and different sectors of society. To stay aligned with social policies and needs, we have always prioritised crosssector collaborations and partnership development programmes that allow us to achieve synergy, integrate diverse resources and maximise the impact of our services. This year, we launched the new “Co-Create for Good” programme to establish a sustainable social-business cooperation ecosystem, seeking to create social value through strategic partnerships and to share benefits with the community. The programme features an online platform that enables businesses to transform their commercial capital into community investments. Corporate partners are welcome to join us in co-creating cooperative solutions that are embedded in core social values such as care for the community, health and well-being, social inclusion and environmental protection, thereby bringing positive and lasting changes to the community.

Promoting Hong Kong as a green and liveable city is one of our key focus areas. We are dedicated to raising public awareness of environmental protection issues and are aiming to incorporate eco-friendly practices into daily life. To this end, we support recycling and waste reduction efforts in the community and promote community farming and urban greening to improve the liveability of the city. This year, our network of Recycling Stores under the “GREEN@COMMUNITY” initiative has been expanded after being contracted by the Environmental Protection Department to operate “GREEN@KWAI FONG” and “GREEN@TAI WO HAU”, which are our first recycling stations in public housing estates and also the first in Kwai Tsing District. We also took over the operations of “GREEN@HUNG HOM” after its relocation to Wuhu Street in April 2023, along with our operation of “GREEN@WALLED CITY” and “GREEN@TO KWA WAN”, our services covering the Kowloon City District. We will strive to encourage residents to practise clean recycling and green living habits, and make good use of the recycling facilities available in the community. To implement our community-driven service philosophy, we piloted the Jockey Club “Look for Green” Mobile Recycling Programme across East Kowloon communities such as Tseung Kwan O, Sai Kung, Wong Tai Sin and Kowloon City with funding from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. Last year, we also introduced Hong Kong’s first electric vehicle (EV VAN), “Mini Look Look,” and extended our services to include rural regions and areas with “three-nil” buildings, such as Yuen Long, Yau Ma Tei, and Jordan, in order to promote the concept of green living for all.

With our three-year Strategic Plan (2023-2025) unveiled in 2023, we have established development goals and detailed plans based on four key strategic development directions: human resource management, talent development, quality management, and technology applications and digitalisation. In addition, we are responding to current social needs by focusing the combined strengths and collective efforts of our core services on developing forward-looking and sustainable services in relation to caregiver support, poverty alleviation, mental health and medical-social collaborations.

To support our long-term development and the goals outlined in our Strategic Plan regarding staff capacity building and cultivating a learning culture, we established the Learning and Talent Development Unit, which is focused on enhancing the capabilities and training of our staff members. Last year, we completed the “Growth Mind Power Programme” and formed cross-functional teams to generate innovative and boundarypushing service ideas that span different disciplines. To prepare the Agency to face future challenges, we will collaborate on a wider scale and continue to nurture a creative culture. Our Human Resources Department has also formulated a series of strategies to attract and recruit talented individuals. This year, we participated in an array of recruitment activities organised by higher education institutions and external groups to draw more aspiring individuals and young talent into the social services sector.

This year marked the 70th anniversary of the Agency. The success of our core services is underpinned by the persistence and hard work of our team, who has laid a solid foundation for their comprehensive and stable development and our collective growth. I would also like to thank the Board of Directors and the government departments, organisations and stakeholders for working together to respond to societal needs. Looking ahead, my team and I will stand firm in our duties and beliefs, and will embody the spirit of our 70th anniversary theme, “One Family • One for Many”, by bringing together internal and external expertise and continuing to contribute to the community with high-quality and innovative services.