people of 16 years or over. The Hong Kong Family Welfare Society, whose work is referred to in paragraph 66, provides casework services at all three Community Centres and the two Social Centres mentioned below. The Department is responsible for the general management of each centre and for a public library of some twenty-five thousand volumes at each, nearly all Chinese, as well as periodicals and newspapers; this amenity is highly valued by children and adults alike, attracting up to a thousand users a day and serving people who for sundry reasons cannot or do not use the Urban Council's central public library service at the City Hall. The Department also runs directly a great variety of men's and women's 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-a 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 elect their own committees, decide on the programme and organize it themselves, while the community worker makes a point of standing more and more in the background, with the aim of leaving them on their own and turning his attention to another less developed cluster of people who need guidance.
17. The Department runs a Social Centre at Sheung Shui in the New Territories (near the Chinese border) in which the Family Welfare Society has an office and the Hong Kong Society for the Blind runs a small sheltered workshop for blind people. Sheung Shui now has a public library of thirteen thousand books and staff and facilities for its own group activities. In the old area of Sai Ying Pun, the Tsan Yuk Social Centre provides a desperately needed outlet for the overflowing popula- tion of the crowded slums of the Western 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, for although the need for community development is most noticeable in the resettlement estates it is not an unnecessary luxury in the back alleys or the slums. Priorities will always be arguable in this field of effort.
18. Community Organization is still a comparatively new field of social work, no less in Hong Kong than elsewhere, although it is recognized
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