The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau (HYAB) and the Youth Development Commission (YDC) jointly launched the new Funding Scheme for Youth Positive Thinking Activities today (December 22) to subsidise eligible non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to organise projects that are conducive to nurturing positive thinking among young people, particularly those projects which would involve cross-sectoral collaboration or be youth-led and could drive community building.
 
     The Chief Executive stated in his 2022 Policy Address that the Government should create opportunities for the children to develop and flourish while nurturing a new generation of young people having an affection for the country and for Hong Kong and possessing global perspectives, who will contribute to the country and the city. The HYAB has recently published the first edition of the Youth Development Blueprint which outlines the principles, objectives and actions of the Government in pursuing youth development. With a view to working towards the direction of the Blueprint, the HYAB and the YDC earmarked about $150 million under the Youth Development Fund to launch the Funding Scheme which aims to subsidise NGOs to promote the awareness of young people's physical and mental well-being, nurture positive thinking among them and cultivate their positive values; and enable them to become a new generation possessing a sense of responsibility and having an aspiration and willingness to contribute to the development of the country and of Hong Kong. Given that positive thinking covers many aspects, the sponsored projects are required to have a clear objective and direction, for example, enhancing positive values such as young people's sense of belonging to the country and society, and the advancement of the rule of law, etc.
 
     The first round of the Funding Scheme (2023-25) will last for around two years. Each application may have a total budgeted expenditure of up to $5 million and, in general, not less than $3 million. To ensure that the applicant organisations are capable of and committed to organising activities of scale, the applicant organisations are required to, on their own by way of matching funds, deploy their internal resources and/or obtain non-governmental funding and sponsorship to partly absorb the total expenditures of the approved projects ($1 of an organisation's resources for every $4 of the Government's funding support). The application deadline for the first round of the Funding Scheme is noon on February 17, 2023. 
 
     The details of the first round of the Funding Scheme and its application form are available on the YDC's dedicated webpage (www.ydc.gov.hk/en/programmes/positive/positive.html). Interested NGOs may browse the above webpage.

Ends/Thursday, December 22, 2022
Issued at HKT 17:07

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