Project Highlights

Project Title:	Child-Family Safety Network
Name of Organization:	The Boys' & Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong The Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Grant Approved:	HKD$2,000,000
Project Duration:	01/04/2009 – 31/03/2012 (3 years)
Target Groups:	-Deprived and services needed families living in Sham Shui Po Different kinds of system such as government and non-government organizations, private enterprises, schools, medical sectors, residential organizations
Location of the Project:	Sham Shui Po

1. Objective

To provide a platform for the deprived families which have received the services in the previous project named Shamshuipo Child-Friendly Community Network, to consolidate and strengthen the community network that has built, to change it into community dynamic, and also to promote families’ experiences to help others.
To develop different systems’ connection in the community and hence the community to provide support to crisis families, also to promote families’ ability to solve their problems, aimed at developing a “child caring and family safety community environment”.
To develop a “care for my own child and other families’ children” belief and the value of helping and believing each others.
To enhance different systems in the community to link together and make use the networks of residents, enterprises and government organizations, targeting to build a child-family safety network.

To put emphasis on “child-family safety network” and “community intervention”, core members of this project lead other parents to link up different kinds of social capital and organizations in the community, to construct the content of “child-family safety” content and hence develop the concept of “child-family safety to the schools, local organizations and families.

To develop neighborhood network in specific estates through “neighborhood system” by matching the “neighborhood members” and “core members”, “core volunteers” and “community network leaders”. Also, through referring the families from schools to develop the linking of neighborhood relationship, to build a family safety network by promoting the message of “child-family safety”.

A mutual help neighborhood network can be built up about 2000 families and the “child-family safety message” can be promoted. Also, the abilities of families and their confidence can be strengthened and hence become the dynamic of the community.
Through the cooperation of different platforms, the community organizations’ awareness and knowledge of “child-family safety” would be increased and this topic between them would then be shared.

This project will develop as a mutual help platform, and sustain the social capital that as built in the previous project. Besides, it will enhance the abilities of families which joined the previous project same to become the community energy to link up other families, schools and organizations in the community participating in this project and to act as networks to develop the neighborhood mutual support spirit, linkage of community networks, trust and mutual benefit social capital.

Core members or volunteers can change community value through sharing experience to parents in the community with the same background, and influence others’ life by their own experience.
To put emphasis on the integration of “child-family safety” by the wisdom of parents at grass roots level. Parents invite other sectors in the community such as medical, schools to have cooperation and act as the leaders of “child-family safety” and have cross-sectoral collaboration.
Through the process of changing the community and environment, parents who were service recipients were gaining ability and confidence to become self-reliant and gaining pride and helping others and become part of the wider community.