The ‘Need-based Development Scheme’
emphasises on the needs of the community.
Only after student volunteers have understood
the community’s needs and built mutual
trust with its residents, can they propose
and implement specific development plans.
Students will get to know the neighbourhood’s
life without any presumption, before organising
their work using the bottom-up method. We
believe the neighbourhood is who understands
its needs the most, and the community has
enough power to improve itself. Therefore, to
effectively uncover the community’s potentials,
service providers should take the role of
facilitators rather than external experts.
Sham Shui Po is frequently labelled as a poor,
chaotic and dangerous community. In fact,
Sham Shui Po is a community with a long history.
Its stalls and small shops, such as Golden, Fuk
Wing Street, Dragon Centre and Apliu Street, all
have their own unique characteristics. We are all
familiar with these places, which should count
as Hong Kongers’ common community, where
activities abound. Within the community, there is
a strong network between people with a strong
sense of human warmth, and its members all
know and help each other. What CU students
have to learn is to spend time with Sham Shui
Po’s communities, using existing community
resources to promote substantial changes.
In the process of exploring the needs of the
community and planning services, students
can work together with service users in the
community, understanding their abilities and
needs in order to plan and organise projects
that belong to the community. In other words,
students will learn how to practice people-
oriented community work.
To t h e c ommun i t y , a s e r v i c e s c h eme
designed and implemented based on the
neighbourhood’s life and the community’s
service needs can respond to its needs more
effectively. Since the scheme also focuses
on bringing residents’ talents and abilities
into play, they can continue to influence and
promote change within the community even
after students have left following the end of the
project.
Upcoming programme:
The new programme will be announced in
January 2016. Stay tuned!
Enquiry number:
3943 9860
When you travel through vibrant Wanchai on a
tram, countless families are living their lives at
grass-roots level, unbeknownst to those who
only see the famboyant side of the city.
Over the century, Hong Kong has been through
too many vicissitudes. The ‘Hong Kong Cultural
Tours Project’ take you on a journey to discover
the city in depth and, through your voice,
enliven its history and continue to pass down its
culture.
A Walk Around Hong Kong
If you walk along the guided route in Sheung
Wan to learn about Hong Kong’s colonial past,
you’ll find the first half of the route remains
leisurely and ancient; yet once you’ve passed
the incense-filled Man Mo Temple, Pak Shing
Temple and the tranquil Blake Garden, you’ll be
facing the hustle and bustle of Graham Street
and Central Market.
Sheung Wan is merely a tiny district, but it’s
got two distinct urban landscapes. This kind of
infusion between new and old, and East and
West, is exactly what’s known to be Hong Kong’s
charm and energy. It’s a side of the city that
deserves to be rediscoverd and cherished.
The Project embarked in September, 2014, with
42 CUHK students designing vivid, enriching
cultural tours based on six themes, which
allowed secondary school students who took
part in the tours to experience each historical
story as if they were being played out in front
of their eyes. The ‘Hong Kong’s Colonial Past’
tour, for example, guided participants through
Central and Sheung Wan, explaining the origins
of iconic landmarks such as Man Mo Temple
and Pak Shing Temple, and letting secondary
school students experience the lives of Chinese
back in the colonial period.
Take a walk in the community and bring with
you the curiosity of a traveller, and you will find
the gems that are hidden in each of the city’s
corners. Be part of the community, experience
its pace of life and ambience, and appreciate
the human warmth of the community.
How to join:
The Project will come back for the
second year in September 2015, offering even
more guided tour themes this year. Participating
students will receive instructions and trainings
by professional instructors between September
2015 and February 2016. They will learn the
whole process of creating a guided tour,
from establishing a theme, researching for
information and designing the tour, to practicing
and rehearsing. From March to May next year,
they will lead secondary school students around
Hong Kong as Cultural Ambassadors, enlivening
history with their unique interpretation.
Click the link below to join!
Enquiry number: 3943 9859
Need-based Development Scheme
Hong Kong Cultural
Tours Project
Social service should not just be about sympathy; grass-roots communities are
also full of vigour.
We believe people-oriented community work must begin by listening carefully
to the community’s needs.
As you walk through row upon row of buildings
in Central, do you know just a century ago, this place was under coloinal rule?
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The Answers Lie in Community
