Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1965-1966 — Page 32

make him a useful member of the community'. It now has plans for a second centre. The Hong Kong Juvenile Care Centre on the Island has a hostel for similar purposes, and additionally has provision for five hundred outside children to come in daily. The British Common- wealth Save the Children Fund street boys' hostels in Cherry Street, Kowloon, and at Shau Kei Wan on the Island continued to provide an open house for eighty-eight boys who have taken to the streets. How- ever the first of these (Norway Hostel) was demolished at the end of March and the responsibility taken over by the Society of Boys' Centres. A temporary hostel will soon be opened as an annex to the Boys' Centre at Shing Tak Street and will move to a new building at Un Chau Street when this is completed by the end of next financial year. These three societies receive government subventions. All three have made their services more effective and useful, and the department hopes that its liaison and co-ordination are helping each further.

41 The Hong Kong Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society and its affiliated agencies, the Salvation Army and Caritas, visit all prisons regularly for interviews and through their caseworkers help any prisoner who genuinely wants to make a fresh start, by counselling and by material assistance; a casework unit is also maintained at Shek Kip Mei, and a special centre at Tung Tau also provides employment in- troductions, rehabilitation and other amenities which, it is hoped, will help those who have just come out of prison to become integrated into the community. The society also maintains three hostels for those who are homeless or need special initial support. It is managed by an active voluntary committee and has a chief welfare officer and twelve case- workers. The Prisons Department, the Police Force and the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs also each provide an observer or adviser for this Society's Committee, and the Prisons Department has now taken over the administration of the government subvention, without in any way reducing this department's friendly involvement. The welfare contribu- tion is reflected in the increasing casework services to ex-prisoners on which the society has so properly concentrated over the years, with careful selection of staff, proper adjustment of caseloads and planned staff development. An additional hostel for twelve drug addicts was opened in April as an experiment for ex-prisoners who have been re- addicted after leaving prison. Each stays in the hostel for two months under the supervision of a qualified doctor and casework help is given after his discharge. Another centre similar to the one at Tung Tau will be opened in Wan Chai very shortly.

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