Jockey Club gives youngsters scope for creativity

01/30/2015

In a major initiative to inspire and empower our youth, the Jockey Club Make a Difference (MaD) School has successfully enabled over 9,000 young people to take part in various programmes designed to develop and enhance their creativity.  A highlight of the programme is the three-day annual MaD Forum, which was opened today (30 Jan) by the Jockey Club’s Chief Executive Officer, Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, along with Financial Secretary John Tsang, Assistant Head of Create Hong Kong Janet Chu and Chairperson of MaD Institute Ada Wong.

Noting that youth is the greatest asset of society, Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said that MaD is not only a pioneer in nurturing creative young talents, but also a community-wide, multi-disciplinary, and year-round creative education programme designed to inspire and empower youth to be socially conscious change-makers undertaking innovative social actions.

With this year’s theme of “Village Reimagined”, 1,300 aspiring change-makers from more than 150 Asian cities join together as “villagers” to participate in various ripple forums as well as interactive workshops and activities, and exchange their thoughts on how to reconnect humans with nature creatively.

The Club has been supporting the MaD Forum since its inauguration in 2010 and provided a further donation to establish the Jockey Club MaD School in 2012. In partnership with local and leading global social innovators, the School provides innovative programmes to the young generation through a systematic and sustainable learning platform that embraces meeting cross-disciplinary “change-makers” from around the world.

The MaD School has already inspired 80 youth action proposals, such as community organic farming for low income families and projects that promote creativity through arts.

Over the past decade, the Club has contributed some $1.2 billion to youth-related education and development projects.  In the next few years, the Club will extend its commitment to strategically focus on ways to channel youth energy into social innovation and tackle complex social challenges with creativity and alternative ways to find solutions.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club is a world-class horse racing operator and Hong Kong’s largest community benefactor, as well as one of Asia’s most prestigious membership clubs. Operating as a not-for-profit organisation, the Club allocates its surplus funds for charitable and community projects. In 2013/14, its donations reached a record $3.6 billion, and in the last decade alone it supported over 1,275 projects. The Club is also Hong Kong’s largest single taxpayer, contributing a record HK$19.58 billion in 2013/14. With about 70% of its revenue given back to society every year through donations and tax contributions, The Hong Kong Jockey Club delivers a significantly higher return to the community than any other racing and/or sports betting organisation in the world. As a socially responsible organisation, the Club helps Government combat illegal betting and advocates responsible gambling. The Club is also one of Hong Kong’s largest employers with over 24,800 full-time and part-time staff. Committed to global excellence and giving back to society, the Club is always “riding high together for a better future” with the people of Hong Kong. Please visit 130.hkjc.com.