Fourth-term Commission on Poverty convenes seventh meeting (with photo)
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At the meeting, Mr Chan briefed members on details of the Strive and Rise Programme, which aims to, through tripartite collaboration between the Government, the business sector and the community, support junior secondary school students from underprivileged families to broaden their horizons, reinforce their self-confidence, develop a positive outlook on life, set goals for their future and strive for upward social mobility. The Government welcomes the business sector and professional associations to nominate volunteer mentors to join the Programme, organise group activities, offer job shadowing opportunities and provide donations for the Programme. Recruitment of mentees through district networks and secondary schools is planned to commence in early September, followed by matching of mentees with mentors, with a view to organising orientation in October.
The Programme comprises three key elements, namely mentorship, personal development plans and financial support. Each mentee will be paired up with a mentor, who will inspire the mentee to explore more possibilities for personal development, develop action plans and make good use of a start-up sum of $5,000 provided by the Programme to take forward the plans under his/her guidance. Upon successful completion of the Programme, the mentee will be awarded a scholarship of $5,000 for applying the financial planning concepts acquired.
Under the Programme, there are certain requirements for volunteer mentors to ensure that mentees can receive suitable guidance throughout the one-year Programme to strive for success. They include: being aged 21 or above (with younger people preferred); being engaged in employment and able to offer job shadowing in the workplace; being able and willing to communicate with youths; being responsible and committed, with a positive mind and optimistic character; having rich life experience to share with the mentee openly and frankly; and being prepared to actively participate throughout the one-year Programme.
The first round of the Programme will last a year, with a target of recruiting 2 000 Secondary One to Three students (regardless of age) from underprivileged families, particularly those living in sub-divided units. The activities of the Programme can be grouped into five aspects, namely an orientation session, basic training, mentor-mentee interactive sessions, diverse group activities, and a graduation ceremony coupled with extended network building. Pre- and post-Programme assessments on mentees will be conducted to ascertain progress in various areas such as self-confidence, sense of responsibility, goal-setting and financial planning abilities.
Mr Chan said, "I was pleased to chair a meeting of the Commission on Poverty for the first time today. I was much encouraged by members' support for the Programme and their pragmatic views on enhancing its implementation details to best alleviate poverty in a targeted manner. The Government will take account of their views when implementing the Programme and promote tripartite collaboration between the Government, the business sector and the community at full steam to enable mentees to strive and rise. At the same time, the Government looks forward to continued collaboration with the Commission to step up work of poverty alleviation in response to the needs of different sectors in society."
The Commission on Poverty, chaired by the Chief Secretary for Administration, has been a close partner of the Government in combating poverty. Meanwhile, since July 2022, the Chief Secretary for Administration has been leading an inter-departmental task force to implement the Chief Executive's manifesto by alleviating poverty in a targeted manner through a scheme to support underprivileged junior secondary school students, particularly those living in sub-divided units.
Ends/Monday, August 22, 2022
Issued at HKT 20:02
Issued at HKT 20:02
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