70th Anniversary | 香港家庭福利會 Hong Kong Family Welfare Society

香港家庭福利會70周年
Hong Kong Family Welfare Society 70th Anniversary

Message

Upholding mission and adopting new approach to meet ever changing needs

Foreword

The 70th anniversary of the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society (the Society) is a timely occasion to review the social impact we have made, to reaffirm our vision in the context of the present and the future, to refresh our focus and programmes in anticipation of evolving needs, and to rejuvenate our brand to bring vigour to the Society.

Pioneering new family services

Since our establishment in 1949, we have continually evolved our services to address the impacts of societal changes on families. Initially, our focus was on providing basic resources support to families without means. Over the years, we have built on our “family perspective”, with the introduction of youth and elderly services to assist families in providing vital, nurturing functions and attending to the often special needs of these members of their unit. In 1988, we opened the “Family Resource Centre” at Butterfly Estate, Tuen Mun, the first service centre of its kind in Hong Kong, providing support to single-parent families, followed by the “Family Mediation Service for Divorced Families” in 1997. Most recently, in 2016, we launched a pilot programme to provide parent-child contact services to support separated couples and high conflict families. These initiatives each play an important role in our ability to provide holistic support to families, and we are happy to report that they are consistently making a positive difference since their introduction.

Expanding our team and accessibility

We started in 1949 with just seven staff members, and now we have a team of almost 1,000 staff – a significant expansion not only of manpower, but also of brainpower, passion and commitment. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all our staff for their contributions to the Society’s development and provision of services over the decades.

In celebration for the Society’s 70^th Anniversary, we have refreshed our website to increase awareness of, and accessibility to the diverse range of assistance we can provide. We have also expanded our website to provide more resources to help families adopt proactive, preventive approaches to problems.

Preparing for the future

In 2019, we have initiated “HKFWS Envisioning 2024” to define the Society’s priorities for the next five years. Underpinning these will be our continuing commitment to sustaining a strong family-centred culture among the Hong Kong community; and education and encouragement to people to help them flourish in their different family member roles. In addition, the Society has commissioned the Chinese University of Hong Kong to conduct a survey towards the establishment of the “Family Wellbeing Index in Hong Kong”, which we envision as an ongoing resource of statistics and evidence, to inform the Society’s future policy development, to be of most value to the Hong Kong community.

Amarantha Yip (Ms.)
Chief Executive
2019

Milestones

The Hong Kong Family Welfare Society was known originally as the Social Service Centre of the Churches, established in 1938. The Society became an independent non-governmental organisation on 1st January 1949 with the initiation of the Rt. Rev. R. O. Hall and the expert assistance of Miss Katherine Scott-Moncrieff, a well-known social worker from the United Kingdom. Backed by the interest and concerns of a group of people from different Christian denominations, the Society was founded with the basic aim of helping families in distress through casework. In the early days, just after World War II, the Society helped with relief work for all people in need, including those who had been released from concentration camps set up during the occupation.

40's

1949

The Hong Kong Family Welfare Society was formally established as an independent charitable organisation. Back in the days, our service focused on providing direct assistance to underprivileged families by the provision of financial loans and sponsorships, distribution of food and clothing, offering employment assistance and the operation of a free school.

70's

1971

Launched the “School Social Work Service”

1972

Launched the “Home Help Service”

1973

Launched the “Family Life Education” pilot scheme

80's

1984

Launched the “Foster Care Service”

1985

Launched the “Mental Health Group service”, which was funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

1988

With the sponsorship from The Community Chest, the Society set up the first "Family Resource Centre" at Butterfly Estate in Tuen Mun, to provide territory-wide services to support single-parent families.

90's

1993

Introduced the "Emergency Foster Care Service”

1997

Launched the “Divorced Mediation Service”

1999

Established the “Zonta White House” – Family Retreat Centre

00's

2001

Established the first “Mediation Centre” among NGO welfare organisations in Hong Kong, in order to provide family mediation and community mediation services. Sponsored by The Hongkong Bank Foundation, the Society also launched the “Peer Mediation Project” in 2001.

2004

The Society’s first "Integrated Family Service Centre” was formally opened
The Society established 5 Integrated Family Service Centres to provide one-stop integrated family services to families in the community
Implemented the "Family Volunteering Movement”
Launched the "Carers Support Stations”

Funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club to launch the “Bridge to Competence Project”

2005

Launched the “Bridge to Competence Project” which was funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club

launch the Pilot Project on Children Contact Service and established Parent-child Contact Centre

2016

The Society was commissioned by Social Welfare Department to launch the Pilot Project on Children Contact Service and established the “Parent-child Contact Centre”

2017

Established the “Financial Education Centre”

2019

“Parent-child Connect Spcialised Co-parenting Support Centre” has been incorporated into the Government’s regular assistance programmes.
The Society was commissioned by the Social Welfare Department to launch the “Pilot Scheme on Social Work Service for Pre-Primary Institutions”
Conducted the first study on “Hong Kong Family Wellbeing Index” (HKFWI) in 2019, aiming to develop a socially relevant and culturally appropriate measurement tool of sound reliability and validity to regularly assess the wellbeing of Hong Kong families.