the year the Council also introduced the Investigation Card Scheme, directed mainly towards ensuring that destitutes who genuinely need assistance are informed of the agencies where their needs can be investi- gated and met by trained workers. Under this system, the public can get a supply of cards, showing the addresses of welfare centres, which can be handed to beggars and others who approach them for help.
77. In the field of group work with children and young people the Standing Conference of Youth Organizations brings together representa- tives of eleven voluntary welfare organizations as well as the Education and Social Welfare Departments; it is also directly responsible for running the permanent children's holiday camp at Silvermine Bay.
78. The Hong Kong Social Workers' Association has a membership of just over a hundred drawn from the staffs of various voluntary organizations and Government departments. This association is a focus for professional and personal contacts between social workers, whatever their field of work or employing agency.
79. The improved economic conditions prevailing for most of the year have made it possible to devote additional resources less to the provision of relief and more to constructive measures such as rehabilita- tion and training for employment, both generally and for the handi- capped in particular. At the same time and apart from the substantial infusion of funds from overseas during World Refugee Year--the public in Hong Kong has responded more generously to many of the appeals made on behalf of the less fortunate members of the community and shown a greater concern and interest in social work.
80. During the year, increased emphasis has been placed upon improving standards, in particular on the training of staff for institu- tional and other work, often jointly by voluntary bodies and the Department. But deficiency of trained and experienced social workers is probably still the greatest obstacle to rapid progress.
81. The close co-operation between voluntary and official agencies which has for long been characteristic of social work in Hong Kong continues to provide a firm foundation for further progress. The inter- dependence of voluntary and official effort is exemplified by the list in Appendix 3 B of some forty voluntary bodies to which public funds are entrusted for the performance of social work in great variety; moreover the conduct of all institutions in the social field, other than those con- cerned with compulsory detention, at present falls within the voluntary sphere of operation. In the fresh field of urban community development,
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