URA and TWGHs’ Young Leaders Programme cultivates leadership and fosters community connectivity

The third Young Leaders Programme jointly organised by the Urban Renewal Authority and the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs) has been concluded with success.  Students from seven participating secondary schools employed their knowledge on urban renewal learned from the Programme while injecting creativity to conceive proposals for improving quality of living of the residents in old districts.

Launched in October last year and running for 11 months, this year’s Young Leaders Programme required the participating students to study the URA’s preservation and revitalisation project “7 Mallory Street” in the Wan Chai old district to understand the characteristics of this historic building and its surrounding communal environment.  Backed up by the study, the students of each school submitted one proposal to promote community connectivity and cross-generation integration, thereby fostering a harmonious and close-knit community.

In October and November 2019, the URA organised a variety of activities including docent tours in old districts, leadership training workshop and sharing session that enabled the students to familiarise with the subject of urban renewal from multiple perspectives while arousing their curiosity in exploring the community.  Throughout the course of the activities, the Programme also nurtured the youngsters’ competencies in leadership, problem-solving, interpersonal communication, teamwork as well as project management skills.  After assessing the students’ performance, teachers from each participating school subsequently nominated the student with the best performance as their school’s Outstanding Young Leader for commendation.

In view of the Government’s social-distancing measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Presentation Day of the Programme was taken place on 27 August 2020 in the form of a web conference, facilitating the Outstanding Young Leaders from the seven participating schools to remotely introduce the proposals of the respective teams with the aid of information technology.  The Adjudication Panel formed by TWGHs Chief Executive Mr Albert SU and URA Managing Director Ir WAI Chi-sing selected the winner for the “Community Connections Award” based on the perspectives of effectiveness in enhancing community connectivity, cross generation integration and creativity of the proposal.

Mr SU remarked at the Presentation Day, “The students’ proposals are innovative, demonstrating their ability in grasping the objective and details of the topic to come up with diverse proposals.  I hope that the students could pay heed to the elder generation in sharing of Hong Kong stories, and go hand in hand to build an integrated community.”

Mr WAI commended the students and said, “I can see that the students had devoted lots of efforts in the course of the contest while exhibiting their creativity.  They had demonstrated the agility in the face of the pandemic to create their outstanding design proposals with the application of information technology.  A leader must be adaptable, with good command of new technologies and innovative spirit.  I look forward to the students taking this Programme as a starting point to explore and unleash their leadership potential.”

The team from TWGHs Wong Fut Nam College, who proposed a series of community events including handicraft fair and workshop, nostalgia cinema and storyteller forum, was awarded the “Community Connections Award”.  Its nominated Outstanding Young Leader, Chow Kit-fung, said, “This Programme not only helps inspire our innovative spirit, but also cultivate our communicative and co-operative skills.  By visiting ‘7 Mallory Street’, we have learned about the stories behind the building and the importance in preserving this unique culture.  With the city’s rapid development, the URA undertakes an indispensable role in balancing the new and the old.”

The scope of the Programme this year was further expanded with the participating TWGHs schools increased from six to seven, including the newly joined TWGHs S. C. Gaw Memorial College and schools participated in last year’s Programme, namely TWGHs Chang Ming Thien College, TWGHs Chen Zao Men College, TWGHs Lee Ching Dea Memorial College, TWGHs Lui Yun Choy Memorial College, TWGHs Mrs. Wu York Yu Memorial College and TWGHs Wong Fut Nam College. The number of participating students also raised from 87 to 105, allowing more youngsters to expose to leadership training and learning opportunity.  Activity details of the Programme and list of Outstanding Young Leaders are given at the Annex.

Annex

Activities of the 3^rd Young Leaders Programme

List of Outstanding Young Leaders Award of the 3^rd Young Leaders Programme

(ENDS)