Promote the Messages of “Family Wellbeing” and “Child Protection” and Enhance Parental and Care Capacities of Parents and Carers

In 2020-2021, our foster care service held a sharing session on “Hong Kong Foster Children’s Mental Health Research” and “Parenting Education” to raise the public's concern on the mental health of foster children, and strengthen the support for foster children and their families. The famous actor, Mr. Chan Kam Hung was invited to share his experience in facilitating parent-child relationship and development of the children’s self-image. Former foster care service user, Jay, and his ex-foster parent, Mrs. Yung were also invited to share their touching stories on “life affects life”, thus bringing out the message that the love and care from foster families are crucial to the growth of foster children.

Owing to the pandemic and class suspension, the kindergarten social work team had tried various methods to support the children and families in need, such as posting information on social media, organising online seminars, distributing worksheets and brochures etc., to promote positive parenting and enhance parent-child relationship. We also organised “child protection” teacher workshops in different kindergartens to promote the message of “child protection”, early identification and intervention of crisis families.

Facilitate Children’s Studying at Home, Enhance Their Learning Motivation and Release Parents’ Child Care Stress through Multi-media Learning Support Programme

Some parents were unable to look after their children around the clock during the class suspension. Our after-school care service was designed to take care of families in need, and to provide online and face-to-face classes flexibly. It also extended hours to enable students to deal with difficulties in homework in order to reduce the burden of parents. The neighbourhood support child care service also tried to match suitable carers for children in need and support the online learning during the suspension of classes. At the same time, the Society also collaborated with the business sector and other NGOs in launching the “Hang Seng Academic Assistance Programme”. The purposes were to support the deprived students by providing a series of online homework guidance and online activities during the class suspension and to enhance their confidence in learning after class resumption. The kindergarten social work service also continued to provide “parent support services”. Professional parent-aide formulated different training plans according to the needs of the children and supported parents to continue the training at home. During the pandemic, the parent-aide provided training through video interviews, so that young children could continue to learn and develop during the class suspension. To support the children and parents, online seminars and videos on emotional management were offered.

Constant Recruitment of Foster Families and Child Carers to Cater to the Increasing Child Care Needs

The Society reached out to more families through media and recruitment activities to promote foster care services and recruit foster families for the children in need. The class suspension during the pandemic brought a lot of stress for parents. To this end, the neighbourhood support child care service also constantly recruited carers to support families in need. Upon the restrictions of the pandemic, we have also made changes in publicity, such as using different media to promote the service; and encourage existing carers to recommend suitable friends to join the service through nomination scheme, so as to promote community involvement and foster mutual support in the neighbourhood.

Move forward of the “Nurturing Seeds Kindergarten Social Work Service”

Since 2019, the Society commenced the “Pilot Scheme on Social Work Services for Pre-primary Institution” (Phase 1 and Phase 2). In 2020-2021, we were granted from the Social Welfare Department to implement the third phase of services, serving a total of 32 pre-primary institutions. Based on the principle of “early identification and intervention”, the social workers in the kindergarten supported the children in need and their families through case follow-up and various preventive or treatment groups / programmes. We also provided support and training to kindergarten staff to enhance their awareness on “child protection” and promoted home-school cooperation to build a caring campus with schools and parents. We also provided services with other non-serving kindergartens. The class suspension has brought different challenges and stresses to parents and kindergarten personnel, and the service mode had also been changed due to the pandemic. The kindergarten social work team supported the children and parents through different forms of activities such as online education programmes, picture book sharing and parent-child games.