Volunteerism and Building of Social Capital

The SWD launched the Volunteer Movement in 1998 and has since been actively promoting volunteer service to foster a spirit of participation and dedication for building a caring and harmonious community. The development of Level 3 Volunteering has been the main foci of publicity for the Volunteer Movement in recent years. Volunteers were encouraged to integrate the core values and spirit of voluntary work into their everyday life and sustain volunteering as a lifestyle. To move forward from attitude to action, both volunteers and service targets are encouraged to take volunteering as a new experience in life since both of them will attain self-development, generate new experiences with mutual benefits and bring enrichment to life. Since late 2016, the Volunteer Movement, with the theme Volunteering – Make a difference in life, further adopted the direction of promoting every person to have at least one episode of volunteering experience in his/her life so that the spirit of voluntary work can penetrate into every aspect of life. Apart from launching a series of thematic posters and videos with this theme, a series of promotional programmes, including the annual highlight, the Hong Kong Volunteer Award Presentation Ceremony, were also organised annually.

Apart from continuous enhancement of the functions of the Volunteer Movement website and promotion through diverse publicity in the media and on the internet, significant achievements were attained in the following areas:

The SWD offered a wide range of support services, including focused highlight of the development on corporate volunteering and feature reports on corporate volunteer teams in the Volunteer Movement Newsletter published regularly, seminars on corporate volunteering, training courses for corporate volunteer teams, and consultation services and mentor schemes for newly formed corporate volunteer teams. The SWD also organised the Best Corporate Volunteer Service Project Competition regularly so as to encourage business corporations to actualise corporate social responsibilities through volunteering. Besides, the Job Shadowing Programme which enhanced the flexibility of corporations, in particular the owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to participate in volunteering was continuously organised in collaboration with the districts.

In 2015-16 and 2016-17, a total of 56 staff from 23 corporations had received volunteer training, while 31 projects participated in the Best Corporate Volunteer Services Project Competition. Each year, about 100 senior secondary school students and over 50 corporate mentors joined the job shadowing programmes about which they gave very positive feedback. Besides, as a cross-sector deliberation to promote integration of the disabled and the able-bodied, the SWD, joining hands with more than 70 corporate volunteer teams as well as other government departments and NGOs, has co-organised the Stargaze Camp for All and the Blind since 2010. Around 2 000 and 2 200 participants joined the event in 2015 and 2016 respectively, which also attracted wide and positive media coverage.

The Hong Kong Outstanding Youth Volunteers Scheme has been held annually since 2000 to award Hong Kong's outstanding youth volunteers for their contribution. To widen their exposure, 40 outstanding youth volunteers selected in 2015-16 and 2016-17 were arranged to receive training, participate in the promotional work on volunteering in Hong Kong and, act as volunteer ambassadors to exchange their volunteer experiences with people outside Hong Kong. They also visited Kuala Lumpur and Penang of Malaysia respectively for exchange in the past two years. The SWD also provided practical support to the Hong Kong Outstanding Youth Volunteers' Association for strengthening their role in promoting volunteerism among the students and youths. Moreover, to encourage the student and youth volunteers to develop innovative and sustainable group volunteering projects for meeting the various community needs under the current social environment, the Best Student and Youth Volunteering Project Competition was organised regularly. There were 42 participating projects in the 2015-16 Best Student and Youth Volunteering Project Competition. Seminars and award presentation ceremony for students and youths are conducted annually to foster whole-person development through volunteering.

The SWD continued to organise a two-year campaign, Caring for Our Community, which mobilised residents in public/private housing estates to join volunteering. In 2015-16, over 110 resident volunteer teams (RVTs) were formed and committed to serve the needy at neighborhood and local levels. From 2012 onwards, the SWD has organised the Community Caring Shop Recognition Scheme annually to promote volunteerism in the community through the involvement of local shops. Their contribution to the community was recognised. In 2015 and 2016, 132 and 177 shops were recongised as community caring shops whereas 8 and 7 shops were accredited as outstanding community caring shops respectively. The annual "Hong Kong Citizen Hong Kong Heart" Volunteer Ambassador Programme attracted over 300 volunteer teams to make more than 100 000 "Do-It-Yourself" items as gifts for the needy or deprived groups each year.

As at 31 March 2017, 1 276 725 individuals and 2 977 orga- nisations had registered to join volunteer service and delivered more than 26 million hours of volunteer service in 2016.

The $200 million Partnership Fund for the Disadvantaged (PFD) was established in 2005 to promote tripartite partnership among the welfare sector, the business community and the Government to help the disadvantaged. The PFD aims to incentivise the welfare sector to expand their network in seeking and securing corporate participation in helping the disadvantaged, and encourage the business sector to take up more corporate social responsibility for creating a cohesive, inclusive and caring society. To further encourage cross-sectoral collaboration to help the disadvantaged, the Government injected another $200 million into the PFD in 2010 and $400 million in 2015, with $200 million set aside for the dedicated purpose of launching more after-school learning and support programmes for primary and secondary students from grassroots families to facilitate their whole person development.

Under the PFD, the Government provides matching grants having regard to donations made by business corporations to support welfare NGOs in running social welfare projects. Since March 2005, ten rounds of regular portion application and three rounds of dedicated portion application have been launched. For the regular portion, as at 31 March 2017, matching grants of over $385 million have been allocated to 171 welfare NGOs for carrying out 827 welfare projects for the disadvantaged, with donations from more than 1 300 business partners. Altogether, over one million disadvantaged persons benefited. Besides, as at 31 March 2017, over $117 million matching grants from the dedication portion have been allocated to 38 welfare NGOs and 55 schools, with donations from more than 190 business partners, for carrying out 149 welfare projects for the purpose of launching after-school learning and support programmes for primary and secondary students from grassroots families. Altogether, over 60 000 disadvantaged students were benefited.