NGO internships experience in Hong Kong (Part I)

An excerpt from an intern:

Under the leadership of my faculty, I and several other students embark on the Hong Kong Association for the Green Society for its one-week internship. First of all, I would like to thank the Association for its training and teaching. We sincerely thank those colleagues who care about the development of our social workers in the Mainland. Through this internship, we understand the current situation of social work development in Hong Kong, feel the advantages of social services for young people in Hong Kong, deepen our professional knowledge of social work and see a huge gap between Hong Kong social workers and Mainland social workers.

China has more than 200 colleges and universities to open social work, the annual training of social workers is in the tens of thousands but in accordance with social needs, these people is not enough. Only 10% -30% of the students choose the appropriate social work. Many of the social work professionals feel that their employment prospects are not optimistic. The social work profession in Hong Kong does not have the same fate as that of the Mainland. Since the economic boom in the 1970s, social workers have rapidly realized their localization and professionalism. So far, they have set up comparatively better social worker registration system and social work professional norms. On the other hand, mainland social workers still face the dual task of localization and professionalism. Learning from Hong Kong is undoubtedly a shortcut to the development of social workers in the Mainland.

Established in November 1991, the Hong Kong Society for the Advancement of Youth is a social institution providing crisis intervention services for young people at risk and enjoys a high reputation in Hong Kong. Its service agencies have overnight outreach teams, 24-hour telephone hotline, male / female crisis intervention center, self-reliance hall and Po bar. The task of the outreach team is to search the streets for teenagers who run away or are homeless on the street every night from 10 pm to 6 am the next morning. The Crisis Intervention Center operates on a small family basis. Professional social workers provide counseling services for young people and their parents. They try to find out the reasons why young people are running away from home and hope that the young people can return to their families. Self-reliance Hall is a transitional hostel for in-service or unemployed youths who provide six months of affordable accommodation and basic vocational training to young people who have reached the working age (15 years and over) but who have been wandering in the streets due to their lack of independent living. To help them stand on their own. Po bar is a young man's playground...

Stay tuned for Part II….