In order to applaud and promote the wisdom and experience gained from the actual practice of social services, the Hong Kong Council of Social Service organized the 2005 Best Practice Awards in Social Welfare. It aimed to expedite professional exchange and to let the public further recognize the contribution of the social welfare services.

28 organizations with 91 project reports entered the competition. The panel of adjudicators chose 10 social welfare organizations with 12 outstanding schemes to award them. Dr. York Chow, Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, HKSAR was invited to be the officiated guest and the presenter of the awards on 10 November.

Two of our programs were selected for the awards. The 'Back to School Program' was applauded for excellence in the general category, while the 'Good Fellow & Alms-deed' program was presented with the 'most effective' award.

Back to School Program

The plan utilized partnership with schools to create a school setting for school dropouts. It provided a two-month long ‘Back-to-school Curriculum’ for those students who have quit school before completing Form 3, and who later regretted and wished to return to school. This simulated 'school-model' prepared them to adapt back to school life and also built up the trust of the schools towards them. One of the adjudicators, Prof. Ma Lai Chong, Professor of the Social Work Department of the Chinese University, remarked that the Back to School Program is of outstanding quality. It recognized the inadequacies of current available services and was able to fully grasp the needs of youths who had lost schooling. Much time and effort had been spent on the design of the service, its carrying out and its assessment. A high level of passion and dedication from the workers was apparent.

Good Fellow & Alms-deed

We joined hands with Radio Television Hong Kong to produce Teen Park Student Forum's 'Good Fellow & Alms-deed', a major recruitment program. Since April 2004, we have successfully recruited over 300 'informants' to come up with over 200 'Good Fellow & Alms-deeds'. Of these, five that carried the most positive message and gave the most meaningful definition of help to others were selected for public recognition. There was wide coverage by the newspapers.

This cooperation between different platforms was a major breakthrough from the more passive cooperation with the media in the past. The media sector was effectively used to promote positive social values and reconstruct the image of youths through positive reporting.

Prof. Ma Lai Chong believed that the strength of this project resided in its ability to reverse the negative way society viewed youths. Another outstanding quality was its ability to cooperate with the media, thus expanding its area of service. Not only did the plan convey a positive and healthy message to society, it also enabled the teachers and students to see the beautiful and kind side of the acknowledged youths. Indeed, this was the part where the plan deserved appreciation the most.