also runs directly a great variety of groups, fathers' and mothers' clubs, youth and children's clubs, interest groups and other activities in such forms as Chinese music circles, photographic clubs, exhibitions, concerts, Chinese operas, film shows, Chinese boxing, judo and calligraphy groups and many more; the general object is to help those who take part to associate together, to develop a group spirit and still more important- the willingness to accept responsibility for others. Success in this aim has already been shown in a number of encouraging ways: in the play centres mothers take turns in looking after the children, and the fathers' clubs continue their tradition of entertaining old people; in many groups, the members themselves tend increasingly to decide on the programme and to organize it themselves, while the community worker makes a point of standing more and more in the background.
14. The third large Community Centre was opened by His Excellency Sir Robert BLACK in Kwun Tong Resettlement Estate in February. As well as the group activities and library common to the earlier institutions, this new building has a play centre designed for up to a thousand children aged from 3 to 10, run by the British Commonwealth Save the Children Fund. The Family Welfare Society also provides a casework service here.
15. This Society, and the Hong Kong Society for the Blind, also have offices in the newest Social Centre, which was opened to the public in October at Sheung Shui in the New Territories, near the border with China. Sheung Shui now has a library of twelve thousand books, and staff and facilities for its own group activities. In the old slum area of Sai Ying Pun, the Tsan Yuk Social Centre provides a desperately needed outlet for the teeming population of the over-crowded tenements of the district. Amenities comparable with those in the bigger centres are provided here too and there are welcome signs of initiative and leadership among those who use the Centre, especially the young people.
16. Community Organization is still a comparatively new field of social work, no less in Hong Kong than elesewhere. A Community or Social Centre provides a focus for work in this field, but is not of course an end in itself. There are already encouraging signs that foundations laid in the past are now supporting further real progress. The Department places great importance upon the training of members of groups to accept leadership. Committee members of many groups have been successfully encouraged to attend courses for this purpose, where they can meet their counterparts from clubs and societies at other centres. Social workers
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