Campus Digest

First phase of pioneer inter-generational Community of Practice project ends in graduation ceremony

02 Sep 2013

A graduation ceremony was held on 30 August for 27 elderly people who participated in the first phase of the pioneer inter-generational Community of Practice project launched by the Faculty of Social Sciences with the support of the University’s Strategic Development Fund.

HKBU funded the establishment of a transdisciplinary multi-layered learning community to provide a platform for University teaching staff, professionals, University students, secondary school students and elderly people to interact with and learn from one another.

With the support of University teaching staff and professionals, HKBU students take the initiative to plan and organise community care activities, thus enhancing students’ whole-person development. The project also enables teaching staff to transfer their academic and professional expertise to university students, and then to secondary school students and the community at large through outreach community learning activities. This has the potential to bring about changes and improvements to the community.

During the first phase of this three-year project, 16 Year 1 and Year 2 students from different disciplines were recruited to participate in the programme. Students collaborated with social workers of Kowloon City Baptist Church Neighbourhood Elderly Centre (Lok Fu) to design and organise a series of activities for elderly people in Lok Fu on the theme of healthy lifestyle and well-being under the guidance and supervision of professionals and University teaching staff. They also invited 10 Secondary 4 students from Lee Kau Yan Memorial School to join the programme as assistants. Activities included physical exercise, bag making, fun adventure, dumpling wrapping and sharing on the old good days. The dumpling wrapping activity was jointly organised with an RTHK Radio 5 programme for the elderly.

Students benefited greatly from the activities. They not only served the community but also learnt through the activities and interaction with the various participants of different generations. Students were continuously encouraged to reflect on the activities to ensure that all the participants gained from the programme.

The graduation ceremony was officiated by Professor Ricky Wong, Acting Associate Vice-President; Professor Adrian Bailey, Dean of Social Sciences; Professor Atara Sivan, Project Leader and Associate Dean of Social Sciences; and Dr. Pak Chi-shun, Head of Social Service Department, Kowloon City Baptist Church; and attended by all the participants of the project.

The project is led by Professor Atara Sivan. Members include Professor Petrus Ng, Head, and Mr. Ng Siu-hung of the Department of Social Work; Dr. Odalia Wong of the Department of Sociology; Dr. Lobo Louie of the Department of Physical Education; and Professor Vicky Tam, Mr. Yeung Siu-wing, Dr. Kwan Yee-wan and Mr. Eugene Tam of the Department of Education Studies. They also participated in the activities themselves to practise and gain from this unique community project.