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CS appeals for community support to promote youth social mobility at Future Stars Appreciation Ceremony (with photos)
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The following is issued on behalf of the Youth Education, Employment and Training Task Force of the Commission on Poverty:

     The Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam, who is also the Chairperson of the Commission on Poverty (CoP), has called on the community to support two major programmes initiated by the CoP - Future Stars and Life Buddies - to help young people move upward in society. Mrs Lam made the appeal while officiating at the Future Stars Appreciation Ceremony 2015 today (November 28).

     About 1,000 people attended today's ceremony, including representatives of various participating and sponsoring organisations from businesses, professional services and the education and social service sectors, as well as students awarded with programme scholarships.

     The Future Stars programme, the first large-scale programme launched by the CoP in promoting youth social mobility, has entered its second year. Through various activities including corporate visits, workplace skills training and internships, the programme helps youths broaden their horizons and gain better self-understanding to assist them in identifying their goals and mapping out their future. There is also a scholarship scheme under the programme - the Upward Mobility Scholarship aims to award students demonstrating resilience in the face of adversity and encourage them to pursue their goals.

     Speaking at the ceremony, Mrs Lam said that the Future Stars programme has steadily built a strong reputation and the numbers of both supporting organisations and young people who have benefited have increased. In 2015, more than 350 organisations supported or sponsored activities and scholarships under the programme, benefiting more than 8,000 youths (including 1,145 scholarship awardees). This represents increases of 40 supporting organisations and 1,000 young people as compared with the figures for 2014. She said the success of Future Stars owes much to its support from all walks of the community. She thanked all the supporting and sponsoring organisations, including the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

     Mrs Lam said that building on the success of the Future Stars programme, the CoP launched a mentoring programme named Life Buddies last month. The CoP is now recruiting mentors for the programme. Mrs Lam expressed the hope that the Life Buddies programme could encourage more people from the community to become mentors and guide senior secondary school students to identify their goals and plan for their future.

     During the sharing session at the ceremony today, youths and mentors participating in internships under the Future Stars programme, as well as scholarship awardees, shared their stories and how the Future Stars programme helped them in achieving their goals and dreams.

Ends/Saturday, November 28, 2015
Issued at HKT 16:21

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