“Applying Social Capital Strategies to Enhance Youth Employability” – The CIIF and LD jointly calling for collaborative proposals **************************************************** Promoting youth employment, especially in a challenging environment, is a massive social and manpower development exercise calling for innovation and collaboration across sectors. Applying social capital strategies and leveraging on their respective experiences, advantages and resources, the Community Investment and Inclusion Fund (CIIF) and the Labour Department (LD) of the Labour and Welfare Bureau will join hands for the first time to launch the “Applying Social Capital Strategies to Enhance Youth Employability” initiative for the promotion of youth employment. The new round of CIIF applications will feature the theme of “Applying Social Capital Strategies to Enhance Youth Employability”. Non-governmental organisations, schools, business and professional bodies are invited to submit collaborative and innovative project proposals to achieve this goal. Successful proposals can be jointly funded by CIIF and LD. Deadline for the submission of applications is 30 November 2008. At the press conference held today. Mr YEUNG Ka-sing, Chairman of the CIIF Committee, said, “Youths are full of potentials. With proper guidance and training, they provide the impetus for building social capital. In launching this joint initiative, the CIIF and LD aim to achieve breakthroughs in mobilizing resources, promoting mindset changes and encouraging innovative strategies for the development of youths.” Mr Yeung Ka-sing said, “Over the last 6 years, the CIIF has accumulated considerable practical experiences and insight in applying social capital strategies to promote youth development and employment. Around one-third of the 189 projects supported by the CIIF are related to youth development. Those projects have benefited from the involvement of adults and professionals as volunteers, developing in-depth mentoring relationships with the young people concerned. These mentoring relationships have been effective in transforming young people's attitudes, instilling in them positive values, and have helped them restore family relationships, set life-long goals and build up pathways to employment. We encourage organizations committed to youth development to propose new ideas with reference to these good practice models.” Speaking on the same occasion, Mr Stanley Ng, Assistant Commissioner for Labour (Employment Services), said, “LD, through the active implementation of the Youth Pre-employment Training Programme (YPTP) and the Youth Work Experience and Training Scheme (YWETS), is committed to promoting the employment opportunities of youths. Over the years, the two programmes have trained well over 140 000 young people. The collaborative projects launched by CIIF and YPTP/YWETS aim to create synergy and achieve added values.” Mr Ng added, “We encourage interested organizations to propose innovative ideas and incorporate elements of YPTP and YWETS into their project proposals. This will benefit trainees of YPTP and YWETS with difficulty in finding jobs and other young people facing employment problems.” The employer and youths participating in today’s event highly valued the CIIF-LD initiative, as it adopts a focused approach to tackle the root problems of youth unemployment. They agreed that transformation of mindset and entrenched values were instrumental to enhancing the employability of youths. Two briefings for interested organisations are scheduled as follows:   Workshop (1) (in Cantonese) Workshop (2) (with simultaneous Cantonese-English interpretation) Date 16 October 2008 (Thursday) (Registration cut-off on 13 Oct 2008) 24 October 2008 (Friday) (Registration cut-off on 20 Oct 2008) Time 2:00 - 4:45 pm 6:30 - 9:00 pm Place Kwai Ching Lecture Theatre Hong Kong Central Library Theatre Presenters (Subject to amendments) 1. Mr Tony Leung, Superintendent Society of Boys' Centres From "TEEN Talent" to "TEEN Studio" Mobilizing partners, extending horizon, learning practically to value opportunities 1. Mr Kent Lam, Social Work Supervisor HK Children and Youth Services "Red Apprentices" Engaging, motivating through mentorship, to creating pathways 2. Employers' sharing: Ms. Priscilla M.F LAM Senior Property & Facility ManagerKai Shing Management Services Limited 2. Employers' sharing: a.) Representative ofAirport Authority Hong Kong b.) Mr. Albert WongCathay Pacific 3. Insights on preparing proposals Details of the CIIF-LD initiative are available at the websites of the CIIF (http://www.ciif.gov.hk) and the Youth Employment Services Website of LD (http://www.yes.labour.gov.hk). For further enquiries, please contact the CIIF Secretariat at 2136 2711 / 2136 2700 or the Youth Employment Services Hotline of LD at 2112 9932. End 12 Oct 2008 (Sunday)