the minimum level which public expenditure on the present basis can provide. Indeed it is difficult to see how some of the services which are known to be required can be expanded to meet the needs without an even greater contribution of voluntary effort in the future to supplement the skills and work of the professional social worker.
107. There are a hundred or so substantial voluntary welfare organizations in Hong Kong devoted wholly or in part to providing welfare services. In addition to these, there are many purely Chinese organizations, of which the kai fong associations and the Tung Wah group of hospitals are examples, which are dedicated to meeting social needs in the educational and medical fields, with which this report is not directly concerned. Various co-ordinating bodies exist to prevent duplication, to co-ordinate, to plan or to interpret to the public the need for such services. Caritas performs this function for the Catholic agencies; the Hong Kong Christian Welfare and Relief Council is active for the majority of the Protestant group, but the most comprehensive is the Hong Kong Council of Social Service which has the major role, with eighty-three affiliated organizations and a small but growing permanent staff under an Executive Director. One of the major functions of the Council of Social Service is its information work. This is accomplished by such means as a regular news-letter, an interpretative leaflet and a Chinese periodical publication; the Council also offers facilities to visitors and local residents who wish to know more about welfare services. During the course of 1966 the Council published a directory which is already proving its value as a concise but compre- hensive source of information on welfare services, official and unofficial. During the year it expanded its Employment Assistance Scheme for handicapped people of all kinds and continued to sponsor a joint programme involving five voluntary agencies, the police force and the Government departments of resettlement and social welfare, to co- ordinate the housing of street sleepers. It has established separate divisions which co-ordinate the work of the voluntary agencies in the fields of family welfare, children and youth services and the rehabilita- tion of the disabled, and has continued to offer advice and suggestions to Government on a wide range of subjects. Its survey into the social needs of Chai Wan was nearing completion at the end of the year and this will prove a valuable guide on the design and planning of a com- munity centre, built with World Refugee Year funds raised locally and administered by the department.
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