Consistent Values Changing Environment
by Andy Ho Wing-cheong This year, the Federation commemorates 60 years of service to Hong Kong’s young people. Over these years, there have obviously been many changes that have impacted the development of our city, socially, politically and economically. These changes have affected the aspirations and ambitions of each successive generation as they negotiated and navigated their own pathways. For an organization like the Federation, the challenge has always been to keep pace by adapting, adjusting and amending services and service delivery to ensure relevancy. In spite of everything, looking back one can say that the Federation has never reneged on its fundamental vision, mission and values: to stand by young people, assisting, supporting, encouraging and motivating. In fact, whether they were called customers or users or clients or participants, all our services have been youth-orientated. I have seen this personally, through very specific events. When I started working at the Federation in 1986, one of my first responsibilities was to prepare young people for the Duke of Edinburgh Award (DEA), now known as The Hong Kong Award for Young People. As an interesting aside, George Stokes, who started the Federation, was also responsible for bringing the DEA to Hong Kong in 1961.
The goal was to help participants build up their selfconfidence and skills while training them for leadership and giving back to the community. This goal remains the same for the Federation, even if the programmes and activities are different. In fact, today, when the Federation promotes the concepts of confidence, responsibility and service, which we refer to as “CRS�, its work is simply a continuation of what began before the specificities of the DEA were established. Similarly, I remember the transformation of youth counselling. Face-to-face meetings at our Youth Counselling Centre slowly expanded in the 1990s and then a hotline was introduced, enabling a less restrictive way for young people to reach out and seek help. With developments in technology, counselling began to use online messaging and SMS texting on phones. Now, with the ubiquitous smartphone, counselling can be delivered on a range of cyber platforms, most especially social media. Just as the means of counselling delivery has changed over time, so have the concerns of young people. What has not changed, however, is the essence of counselling and the commitment to provide the best assistance and support we can to those who need it for their wellbeing.
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