Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1967-1968 — Page 17

32. Such a creation of physical communities out of an already heterogeneous amalgam of people from diverse backgrounds has aggra- vated the question of social cohesion and identification to the immediate community in which they live. Families rehoused in this way may have little feeling of neighbourliness towards those next door, let alone feel- ings towards the community as a whole. In the older parts of the twin cities on either side of the harbour, where overcrowding is the rule rather than the exception, the basic situation is not much different. Social consciousness and feelings of responsibility towards the com- munity at large are the essential elements for the development of responsible citizens and of coherent communities with common concerns. There has been an urgent need for conscious efforts to quicken this process without allowing this rootlessness characteristic of the past years' remarkable development to take its own course and to expose the population to irresponsible influences.

33. The Group and Community Work Division (formerly known as the Youth Welfare Section) has made an important contribution towards this broad aim of increasing the social cohesion for the devel- opment of communities with common values and concerns. This has been done through its community and social centres set up in certain resettlement estates and new towns. The approach so far adopted is to provide a variety of welfare services needed in the area to meet some of the basic needs of the people and to bring neighbours together, to develop groups of various ages through which members may progres- sively develop a sense of belonging and responsibility towards the group and later the neighbourhood, and to develop community activities with the joint efforts of the divergent groups in the community for the development of a more integrated community with increasing strength. These three courses are blended as one in the work of a community centre. The first centre at Wong Tai Sin Resettlement Estate is now eight years old; the second is in the industrial town of Tsuen Wan; the third was opened in 1964 at Kwun Tong; the fourth at Tai Hang Tung in March 1966. Planning is in progress for others at Yuen Long in the New Territories and at Chai Wan on Hong Kong Island, the former to be built with a grant from the Lotteries Fund, and the latter with money raised in Hong Kong through the Hong Kong Council of Social Service during the World Refugee Year.

34. The department is responsible for the management of these centres and is working in co-operation with a number of voluntary

11