more; the general object is to help those who take part to associate and to develop a group spirit and still more important-a willingness to accept responsibility for others. Success has been shown in encourag- ing ways: in the play centres mothers take turns in looking after the children; the adults' clubs continue the tradition of entertaining old people and raising funds to help victims of disasters; the youth groups contribute a stout effort in helping still younger age groups and in promoting community projects like summer clubs, cleanliness campaigns, and the like. In most established groups, the members elect their own committees, decide on the programme and organize it themselves, and the community worker abides by his directive to stand in the back- ground, with the aim of leaving them on their own and turning his attention to another less advanced cluster of people who still need guidance.
14 The department runs a social centre at Sheung Shui (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 sixteen 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 population of the crowded slums of the Western island. Amenities comparable with those in the bigger centres are provided here too, for although the need for community development is most noticeable in the resettlement estates it is not an unnecessary luxury in the back alleys. Priorities will always be arguable in this field of effort, but young people are as numerous in the slums as elsewhere, and initiative and leadership as essential for leisure among any districts where it is a novelty.
15 Community organization is a comparatively new field of social work, no less in Hong Kong than elsewhere, although it is recognized in the profession as one of the three main social work methods. At the invitation of the United Nations (through its ECAFE Social Affairs bureau) a delegation of three persons from the two Universities and three from voluntary and Government organizations attended the Sub- Regional Workshop on Professional Education for Community Develop- ment, held in Bangkok in December. There is an urgent need for suitably trained workers in this field and participation at such work- shops offers a real stimulus to social work educators and practitioners and prepares the way for suitable training of such workers under local auspices. The aims and duties of the Social Welfare Department are an
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