SOCIAL WELFARE
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Apart from professional services, volunteers from many walks of life participate in the programme under a Volunteer Scheme for Probationers. The purpose of the scheme is to enhance community involvement in rehabilitating probationers. Probation, which is a sentencing alternative to imprisonment, applies to offenders of all age groups. It allows offenders to remain in the community under the supervision of a probation officer and subject to prescribed rules of conduct set by the courts.
Remand homes and correctional institutions are designed to prepare offenders to return to the community as law-abiding citizens. Educational, prevocational, social and recrea- tional training is provided. The Social Welfare Department has five institutions special- ising in this work, each with a slightly different training programme to cater for different ages and sexes.
The Begonia Road Boys' Home and the Ma Tau Wai Girls' Home are combined remand and probation institutions for offenders or young people in need of care and protection, and who are under the age of 18 years. The Castle Peak Boys' Home is for boys under 16 and above 14 on admission, who are sent there for a relatively long-term, residential, re- education programme, following conviction by the courts. The O Pui Shan Boys' Home is a reformatory school for juvenile offenders aged 14 and under on admission. Character training and education are the main objects and a family atmosphere is provided in accord- ance with modern concepts. The Kwun Tong Hostel is a probation hostel for young men aged between 16 and 21 who are placed on probation by the courts subject to the special condition that they reside at the hostel for up to one year.
The department also operates an After-care Unit which helps offenders to rejoin society by preparing them while they are still in the schools and giving them support after they leave.
Apart from the services provided by the Social Welfare Department, voluntary agencies such as the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society, the Lok Heep Club of Caritas-Hong Kong, the Society of Boys' Centres, the Rennie's Mill Student Aid Project, the Hong Kong Juvenile Care Centre, the Pelletier Hall and the Marycove Centre, all make significant contributions to the correctional services programme.
Family Welfare Services
The family welfare services programme helps individuals and family members to avoid personal and family problems, or to deal with them when they arise, with the aim of preserving and strengthening the family unit. These services are provided on a territory- wide basis through 17 centres operated by the' department and a number of voluntary agencies.
The services include counselling on personal and family problems; care and protection for young people under the age of 21; providing residential and foster care for children up to the age of 21; day-care for children under six; and making referrals for schooling, housing, employment, financial assistance, legal advice, medical attention, home help, and placements in appropriate institutions for vulnerable groups. The number of families and individuals assisted in 1980 totalled 19,017.
The department also exercises statutory responsibilities under a number of ordinances, such as the Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance, the Guardianship of Minors Ordinance, the Marriage Ordinance and the Offences Against the Person Ordinance.
All child-care centres are subject to registration, inspection and control under the Child Care Centres Ordinance and Regulations. The prime objective of child-care centres is to provide full day care and supervision for children under the age of six years, in accordance