Formation 1947 Members 370 | ||
Type Non-governmental organisation 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 400 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.
Contents
- Mission
- History
- 1950s
- 1960s
- 1970s
- 1980s
- 1990s
- Scope of work
- Sector development partnership
- Service development
- Quality management efficiency enhancement
- Policy research advocacy
- International regional networking
- Children youth
- Elderly
- Family and communities
- Rehabilitation
- Core business
- 1 Sector development and partnership
- A Children and youth service
- B Elderly service
- C Family and community service
- D Rehabilitation service
- 3 Policy research and advocacy
- 4 International and regional networking
- 5 Information technology service centre
- 6 HKCSS HSBC Social Enterprise Business Centre
- Partnership
- Committees
- References
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
This Partnership Unit strengthens co-operation between business and social service sectors to enhance resources and shared responsibility to help those in need. The Caring Company Scheme has been launched to promote a good corporate citizenship by inspiring enterprises to participate in social service affairs in collective effort to build a caring company.
The Resources Development Unit helps enhance charities' resources development and fundraising capacity. Launched an online charity platform www.WiseGiving.org.hk to enable the public to get hold of social needs and make informed giving decisions, as well as to advance charity accountability and transparency in Hong Kong.
The HKCSS Institute is committed to the promotion of good NGO management practices and charity accounting through various management programmes, tools and training.
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
The service objective is to assist elderly persons to remain living in the community for as long as possible. These services also give support to carers. With increasing diversity of community support services for the elderly, a more integrated approach to facilitate access to services will be adopted.
NEC is a type of community support services at neighbourhood level which provides a range of comprehensive services to cater for the psycho-social and developmental needs of both healthy and mildly frail elders, including, educational and developmental activities, volunteer development, carer support service, counselling service, reaching out and networking, social and recreation activities, meal service, drop-in service, Information and referral centre on community resources.
Social Centres for the Elderly organise social and recreational activities for elders in the community and to provide information regarding welfare services for the elders and referral to appropriate services.
DECC is a type of community support services at district level to enable elders to remain in the community, to lead a healthy, respectful and dignified life, to enhance their positive and contributing role and to involve the public to build up a caring community. DECC provides services including community education, case management, support team for the elderly, health education, educational and developmental activities, information and referral centre on community resources, volunteer development, carer support services, social and recreational activities meal and laundry services, drop-in service.
To reach out to single and needy elderly and provide them with social networking and support service; encourage volunteers to visit and assist single elderly.
Day Care Centres for the Elderly provide a range of centre-based care and support services during daytime to enable the frail and demented elders suffering from moderate or severe level of impairment to maintain their optimal level of functioning, develop their potential, improve their quality of life and to enable them to live in their own homes wherever feasible and possible. Services provided by Day Care Centre includes nursing care, rehabilitation training, health education, carer support services, day respite service, counselling and referral services, social and recreational activities, meal, transportation 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 [2] is one of the major partnership program. Others included co-operation with RTHK, HSBC, tertiary institutions, etc.
Committees
(updated to 2010)