Downloading of the acrobat documents for reading and printing can be done through the use of the Adobe(R) acrobat(R) reader software which is available free at the Adobe Systems Inc. Website.

Charitable Fund-raising for victims of the Sichuan earthquake
The list of Charitable Fund-raising Activities in public places for victims of the Sichuan earthquake issued with Public Subscription Permit (PSP) can be downloaded here.

Charitable Fund-raising Activies in July 2008
The list of Charitable Fund-raising Activities in public places in July 2008 issued with Public Subscription Permit (PSP) can be downloaded here.

The Social Welfare Department is going to accept application made by any body of persons / non-governmental organisation to become accredited bodies for providing local adoption service on a self-financing and non-profit making basis under a new accreditation system starting from August 2008.  For details of the application, please refer to the following document:

• Accreditation System in respect of Local Adoption in the HKSAR including Accreditation Application / Renewal Application at Annex 1 and Adoption Self-Assessment Report at Annex 3.

The 2-year Pilot Project on Child Fatality Review has commenced since 15 February 2008.  The Review Panel has held the first meeting in March 2008 and decided to review all death cases with children aged below 18 who died of non-natural causes on or after 1 January 2006.  The updated information brief of the Pilot Project can be downloaded here:

Information Brief of the Pilot Project on Child Fatality Review

The Finance Committee of the Legislative Council has approved an increase of 4.4% in the standard payment rates under the CSSA Scheme with effect from 1 August 2008 in accordance with the existing mechanism ahead of the normal adjustment cycle this year to ease inflationary pressure on CSSA recipients.

The revised rates effective from 1 August 2008 are provided in the leaflet below :

Information leaflet on standard rates, supplements and special grants under the CSSA Scheme (SSL/12)

(Acrobat Doc)

Marketing Consultancy Office (Rehabilitation) [MCOR] of Social Welfare Department organize 4 stage dramas to be performed on 7:30pm, 10th August 2008 at Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium.  Aim of the program is to enhance public awareness and understanding of working capabilities of people with disabilities (PWDs) that in turn promote a positive attitude and support towards PWDs products and services and social integration. 

The 4 dramas are based on the winning scripts from "SEPD - Let Them Shine" Drama Script Competition that was held on February 2008.   Please visit http://www.info.gov.hk/mcor/tc_chi/events/eventdtl98.html for the complete scripts (Chinese only).

The performance will be conducted in Cantonese only.  Free admission tickets will be distributed on first-come-first-served basis.

Interested parties please submit 'ticket redemption form' (see below) on or before 25th July 2008. For more details, please visit http://www.info.gov.hk/mcor/english/events/eventdtl99.html

Ticket redemption form (Chinese only)

The Social Welfare Department (SWD) is now inviting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with experience in providing local employment assistance services to operate the projects under the IEAS from October 2008 to September 2011 to help the unemployed able-bodied Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients rejoin the workforce and achieve self-reliance.  There will be a total of 60 employment assistance projects under the IEAS.

If you are interested in operating the projects under the IEAS, please use the standard Application Form to send in your project proposal (including appendices and attachements, if any) of not more than 20 pages (A4 with font size 13) in total.  Applicants should submit a full set of the proposal [the original plus eight hard copies and one soft copy in CD ROM (MS Word 6.0 or above version)] by hand to the following address:   

Support for Self-reliance Section
Social Security Branch
Social Welfare Department
Room 213, 2/F., North Point Government Offices
333 Java Road, North Point,
Hong Kong

Deadline for submission of the application is 5:30 p.m. of 4 August 2008 (Monday).

Late applications will NOT be accepted.  Any application submitted not in the prescribed format of the Application Form or not within the specified volume will not be considered.

A briefing session on the IEAS will be held on 15 July 2008 (Tuesday).  If you wish to attend the briefing session, please complete the Reply Slip and return it to Support for Self-reliance Section of SWD by fax (fax number: 2383 2139) on or before 14 July 2008 (Monday).

For details of the Invitatiotn Letter, Service Specification and Application Form of the IEAS, please click here:

Invitation Letter and Reply Slip
Service Specification
Application Form

For supplementary information on the distribution of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance cases over the territories, please visit the following WebPages for details:
http://www.swd.gov.hk/doc/finance/FAQBudget08_09/BQ-08-09%20SS_eng.pdf (please see Page 49, Question Serial No. 1292)

The Social Welfare Department (SWD) is now inviting bona fide non-profit making agencies currently operating SWD-subvented young people services for at-risk youth (i.e. District Youth Outreaching Teams, Overnight Outreaching Service for Young Night Drifters and Community Support Service Scheme) and/or designated drug treatment and rehabilitation services (i.e. CCPSAs, Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Centres, and Social Clubs for Drug Abusers/Ex-drug Abusers) to operate the CCPSAs in (i) Yuen Long District and/or (ii) Shatin District.  Applicant NGOs interested in operating either one or both new CCPSAs may submit one or two separate service proposals for designated district.

CCPSAs are designated service units providing a continuum of direct community-based non-residential drug treatment and rehabilitation services as well as preventive education services to psychotropic substance abusers and young people at risk.

A briefing session on this invitation for proposal will be held on 14 July 2008 (Monday) at 3:00 p.m. at Room 406, Lady Trench Training Centre at 44 Oi Kwan Road, Wan Chai.  Registration for the briefing session is detailed in the Invitation Letter as per file attached.

Invitation Letter and Reply Slip for Attending the Briefing Session, Service Specifications (Summary) and its Detailed Description with Annexes 1 to 3 could be downloaded in the files attached below.

- Invitation Letter and Reply Slip for Attending Briefing Session 
- Service Specifications (Summary) - Appendix I 
- Service Specifications (Detailed Description) - Appendix II 
- Funding and Service Agreement - Annex 1 
- Assessment on Service Quality Standards (SQSs) - Annex 2 
- Information to be Included in the Application - Annex 3
 
The closing date of submission of application is 4 August 2008.

Should you have further enquiries, please contact Miss Jessica Cheung, Senior Social Work Officer (Youth)2 at 2892 5128 or Miss Mimi Lo, Social Work Officer (Youth)2 at 2892 5126.

The Task Group on Implementation of Integrated Family Service Centres (IFSCs) (Task Group), comprising representatives from all the nine Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) operating IFSCs, two NGOs operating the Integrated Services Centres in Tung Chung, 11 District Social Welfare Offices of Social Welfare Department (SWD) and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, was formed in May 2004 to discuss on operational issues and common areas of concerns arising from the implementation of IFSCs.  A total of twenty-six Task Group meetings have been held between May 2004 and June 2008.  You may retrieve the notes of the meetings in the following section:

You may download here the notes of the twenty-fifth meeting.

The Financial Secretary announced in his 2008-09 Budget Speech to provide one additional month of the standard rate for CSSA recipients, one additional month of allowance for DA recipients, and a one-off grant of $3,000 for OAA recipients.  The Finance Committee of the Legislative Council approved a financial allocation of $2.7 billion on 16 May 2008 for implementing the measure.

Welfare recipients are not required to make application for the one-off additional payment.  The money will be paid to them on 16 June 2008 through the existing CSSA or SSA payment method, that is, normally through bank payment credited to the designated bank account.

The list of Flag Day Organisers from April 2008 to March 2009 can be downloaded here.