Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1968-1969 — Page 9

for group and communal activities, a family planning clinic, a general out-patients clinic, and a Family Services Centre of the Department. The majority of the services are provided by voluntary welfare organizations with financial assistance from the Lotteries Fund for installations, equipment and furniture, and with an assured subvention based on standard estimates of operational costs. Other similar build- ings have been planned for the Shek Lei Resettlement Estate in Tsuen Wan and the Sau Mau Ping and the Tsz Wan Shan Resettlement Estates in New Kowloon.

7. Some of the more conspicuous events of the year focused atten- tion on that field of social welfare which seeks to rehabilitate the physically handicapped and the mentally retarded. A seminar on mental health, sponsored by the World Federation for Mental Health and the Hong Kong Mental Health Association, was held in April 1968 and attended by participants from Hong Kong and from South-East Asian countries. This was followed by the opening in the City Hall on 1 September 1968 of the 4 Pan-Pacific Rehabilitation Conference which was jointly sponsored by the International Society for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service; the Conference explored various new employment outlets for the disabled.

8. Group and community work, operationally based in previous years in and from community and social centres situated mainly in the new resettlement areas, were given a fresh impetus with the appoint- ment in February 1969 of four District Community Officers attached to four City District Offices on an experimental basis. Their appoint- ment stemmed primarily from the fact that the need for group and community services was evident as much in the older, more established urban areas as in the new townships. These District Community Officers work in close association with the City District Officers of Yau Ma Tei and Sham Shui Po in Kowloon and of the Western and Wan Chai Districts on Hong Kong Island. Generally, their task is to foster the growth of responsible attitudes towards citizenship among people residing in their respective districts by encouraging them to take an increasing part in the life of the community. Judging by initial response the District Community Officer scheme appears to have won public acceptance and it is intended to review their work with a view to making further appointments in future on a permanent basis.

9. The most important development of the year was Government's review of the policy for public assistance. Various ad hoc revisions

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