Reflecting on the past year, The Hong Kong Family Welfare Society has upheld our "family-centric" belief to provide professional and excellent family services. We support individuals and family members in overcoming difficulties and meeting their needs, aiming to enhance society's overall awareness on family wellbeing. We have witnessed the strength and resilience of different families, demonstrating solidarity in the face of various challenges. The followings are the key highlights for this year:

Our services continue to evolve in response to societal needs. The Integrated Family Services continued to receive sponsorship from the Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation to run the "Family in Crisis Support Project" in 2025 and 2026, providing emergency financial assistance to families who have lost their breadwinners, helping them to navigate difficulties and reconstruct family functions. The service team also promotes mental wellbeing, using innovative Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety, while enhancing participants' psychological wellbeing through diverse groups and activities. Our Children Services have further expanded their coverage of the community. The Po Lam CareNet Child Care Service Centre was established in December 2024 to provide a flexible form of day child care for parents who lack of resources or support network due to work arrangements or sudden engagement. In November of the same year, the "Tseung Kwan O After School Care and Support Programme for Pre-primary Children Project" was also approved by the Social Welfare Department. It aims to relieve the caring pressure on families who are unable to provide proper care for their pre-primary children due to long or unstable working hours, or to support families facing difficulties.

In May 2024, we announced the results of our third territory-wide study of "Hong Kong Family Wellbeing Index". The results revealed that the presence of a carer in a family has a significant impact on family wellbeing, and the situation of "old and sole carers" requires particular attention. Therefore, the Society recommends promoting "family health" on a family basis and supporting the approximately 260,000 elderly sole carers. This announcement garnered over 20 media coverage, attracting widespread attention.

Our Elderly Services have actively collaborated with external parties, including participation in the "Carer Support Project 2.0" funded by the Simon K.Y. Lee Foundation, to equip social workers skills to assess and support carers. We also assist the elderly and carers in using technology to maintain social connections, promoting their physical and mental health, and encouraging active community engagement. This year, Youth Services celebrated the 25th anniversary of the ATAA Jockey Club Tseung Kwan O Youth Square with activities themed "dreams", engaging young people, parents and community members. The "Learning Together with Family" initiative provided online and offline educational activities to foster healthy internet use among family members, with over 20,000 service attendances.

For Mediation Services, we received support from the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau, through the Community Care Fund, to launch the "Maintenance Mediation Pilot Scheme". This three-year scheme is expected to handle a total of 1,200 cases, providing service users with an effective alternative way to resolve disputes other than court proceedings. Additionally, we received a grant of HK$3,843,967 from The Community Chest to launch the three-year “Sunshine in Families - Project on Mediation Education and Services”. This project aims to help those divorced or cohabiting handle conflicts and resolve difficulties in family living arrangements through professional mediation services and educational activities, promoting the concept of mediation within the community. The school-based "Peer Mediation Project" entered its 23rd year. Since its inception in 2001, the project has served over 210 primary and secondary schools and tertiary institutions, with more than 8,000 students trained as "Peer Mediators." We were honoured to have Mr. Paul Lam Ting Kwok, GBS, SC, JP, the Secretary for Justice, as the Guest of Honour at the recognition ceremony held in July 2024.

The Financial Education Centre has its collaboration with local banks, including HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and OCBC (Hong Kong), as well as the Insurance Authority, to provide financial education to the community, promoting healthy and sound financial attitudes, knowledge, and skills. The Centre's "Empowering Your Life’s Second Half Financial Education Project" was awarded the “Investor and Financial Education Award (Public / Professional Body and NGO) - Gold Award, affirming the programme's effectiveness. Concurrently, we were commissioned by the Labour and Welfare Bureau to conduct courses for the elderly under the "Elder Academy Scheme", covering topics such as retirement planning, electronic payments, and fraud prevention, as well as training young people to assist the elderly with financial management, thereby promoting inter-generational inclusion.

With the completion of the "HKFWS Envisioning 2024”, we have now formulated our strategic vision for the following three years. The foremost priority is to continue responding to social needs and adjusting resource allocation. We will adopt innovative models and draw on corporate operational practices to further enhance our service capacity, explore new community projects, and promote sustainable development. The Legal Support Steering Committee, established by the Executive Committee in early 2024, has enhanced the organisation's standards in legal compliance, risk management, and corporate governance, and has raised related awareness among our colleagues. We will also strengthen central support, leverage technology to improve efficiency and enable the long-term development of our frontline services, as well as to establish a more comprehensive supervision and learning mechanism.

As society places increasing importance on family wellbeing and the government actively promotes a caring family culture, HKFWS has a profound sense of responsibility. We are not just a provider of social services but also an advocate for nurturing healthy family growth and enhancing the wellbeing of every family member. Our steady development has always relied on the support from all sectors, government departments, partners, and every single family. Looking ahead, we anticipate continuing to work together with all stakeholders, so that wellbeing extends beyond the family and the spirit of caring is embodied throughout the community.

Ms. Kitty Chau
Chief Executive
Hong Kong Family Welfare Society