Club sponsors the facelift of more than 80 youth services centres to benefit the community

1 March 2010

Children and young people are pillars of our future, therefore adequate provision of facilities and services is vital to nurture their growth.  The Hong Kong Jockey Club has always attached great importance to the betterment of young people and donated HK$200 million in 2002, matching a grant from the Lotteries Fund, to modernise dozens of youth services centres across the city.

On Saturday (27 February), the 81st Club-funded youth centre - the Hong Kong Young Women's Christian Association Jockey Club Tin Shui Wai Integrated Social Service Centre - was officially opened by the Club's Executive Director, Charities, Legal & Corporate Secretariat, Douglas So; Assistant Director (Youth & Corrections) of Social Welfare Department, Fung Man Lok; The Rev Lau Wing Kai and Chairperson of YWCA, Patricia Ling.

Mr So said at the opening ceremony that the Club had been dedicated to promoting social harmony over the past years, and he believed the upgraded facilities could benefit the Tin Shui Wai community.

"Young people enjoy new items and ideas," he said.  "It is necessary to provide modernised facilities to keep up with their needs.  Therefore the Club and the Lotteries Fund have jointly funded the facelifts of more than 80 youth services centres in Hong Kong, seeking to attract more young people to gather at these venues to participate in more healthy activities.  Most of these refurbishments have been completed and the results are very satisfactory."

The renovated three-storey centre in Tin Shui Estate has a gross area of 900 square metres.  It provides up-to-date facilities for children, young people and families, including a DJ studio and piano room for grooming musical talents; a cookery room for fostering parent-child relationships through cooking workshops and for training catering hopefuls; a large activity room for stage studio training and dance classes; a multimedia room to nourish young people's computer knowledge; and a shooting game room, simply for fun.

The Club has placed great importance on the development of the north-western New Territories in recent years and funded numerous services and facilities in the area, including SkyHigh Creative Partners, which is aimed at nurturing creative young talent and the HKJC Tin Shui Wai Telebet cum Volunteers and Training Centre, which has created many new job opportunities for local residents.

During the weekend, the Club also brought its community-wide engagement programme, the "Hong Kong Can Do Campaign", to New Territories North-west, as part of an HKJC 125th Anniversary Exhibition staged at Maritime Square in Tsing Yi.  During the event, the first rehabilitation centre to participate in the campaign, a group from TWGHs Jockey Club Ngai Ching Ngai Pok Hostel and TWGHs Lok Kwan District Support Centre, gave a public demonstration of the Hong Kong Can Do Exercise routines alongside the Club's CARE@hkjc Volunteer Team, aiming to promote a healthy lifestyle.

The YWCA, which operates a number of integrated youth services centres in the city including the newly-refurbished Tin Shui Wai facility, has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Hong Kong Can Do Campaign.

125th Anniversary of The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club is celebrating its 125th Anniversary in 2009/10 season.  Over the past 125 years, it has become one of Hong Kong's best known and respected organisations, providing the public with world-class sporting entertainment as well as being the city's major non-Government community benefactor, now donating more than HK$1 billion a year to charitable and community projects.  It has been a part of Hong Kong through good times and bad, sharing the city's growth and development with its people, and is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for future generations.