What is the first thing that comes to mind upon thinking about SoCO?
Gilbert Chow,
Former HK General Manager of an airline,
Volunteered to teach underprivileged children in SoCO centre since 2010
A newspaper report on an interview given by Mr. Ho of SoCO left me with a deep impression. After retirement, I began my journey with SoCO as a volunteer tutor and an English class teacher. What I have witnessed first-hand through all these years vindicate my deep impression: speaking up for the underprivileged and fighting for justice, they have never forgotten or deviated from what they set out to do. This is what has been driving me to devote myself and contribute the little I can to the task of teaching English to children. It is an honour and blessing to be associated with such a worthy organization.
Nicky Wong
Bloomberg, Community Service Corporate Partner
I was lured into our company’s Philanthropy Committee about 8 years ago. My responsibility was, and still is, to organize charitable activities, with NGOs of my choice, for our colleagues to do voluntary works. I chose SoCO because I had known SoCO for years as an organization serving the underprivileged. For the past 8 years, I have organized English classes and extracurricular activities for children, visits to cage homes and wood-partitioned cubicles, delivery of necessities to homeless people…etc. By participating in these activities, our colleagues have become more aware of the vulnerable groups and also, have learnt some of the social issues of our local communities in Hong Kong.
KPMG
KPMG China has been a community partner of SoCO since 2003. Over the years, more than 1,000 KPMG staff have volunteered in SoCO’s community service activities. Lifelong learning is one of KPMG’s core CSR focus, together with SoCO, we are committed in nurturing youth and children to be future leaders. We have been providing supports such as internship
Benny Lam
Voluntary Photographer for “Trapped”
Hong Kong is a twisted society. Some people pretend not to see the problem. There is a need for people to put justice into practice. I appreciate SoCO’s work in improving the life of the underprivileged and poverty groups and in safeguarding the fundamental dignity of life as well as social justice. Let’s all keep it up.
The 1970s was the golden age of Hong Kong’s economic take-off, but it was also a time when the colonial bureaucracy was conservative and closed, and when the people suffered from numerous corrupt practices. The underprivileged, such as boat people, residents of old resettlement areas and squatter huts, were everywhere.
In 1971, a group of people concerned about the development of Hong Kong and advocating for a fair and reasonable social system, as well as clergy of the church, formed the Society for Community Organization (SOCO) to promote equality and a caring society by organizing the affected people.
Hong Kong is one of the most affluent cities in the world, but behind the prosperity, the disparity between the rich and the poor is even more serious, and there are even more forgotten groups of people, such as hundreds of thousands of people living in sub-divided units of caged homes, street sleepers, and more than a million poor grassroots people who are struggling to survive every day. With the accumulation of wealth in society, the demand for services continues to grow.
The plight of the grassroots, who are economically and politically disadvantaged, is often overlooked. Through organizing the affected groups, training the residents and a series of social actions, SoCO has been helping them to build up self-confidence, understand their own rights and dare to reflect policy issues to the government. A group of people who were originally underprivileged have become a force for improving the social system.
The SoCO has also started poverty alleviation work in the community, providing support services to the grassroots and mobilizing social resources and people from all walks of life to participate in poverty alleviation.
In the face of rapid social changes, the SoCO has been working with the grassroots to fight for a reasonable life, and will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the underprivileged in the days to come, in order to develop a caring society together.
Vision and Mission
SoCO believes that all people have equal opportunities to participate in development. Through its community organizing strategy, SoCO makes people understand that the protection of individual rights is based on a reasonable and equal society, and enhances people’s ability to solve problems and builds up their strengths.SoCO organizes the helpless community to make them aware of their own rights and seeks to improve the unfair social system. Through hundreds of social actions, participants not only rebuild their self-confidence and dignity, but also unite as a force for social improvement. In addition, SoCO provides timely emergency support and social services to individuals and families with urgent needs to help them overcome difficult times.
SoCO develops various work programs to strengthen people’s ability to help themselves and others to overcome difficulties. In the years to come, SoCO will keep its faith and work with the grassroots to build an equal and caring society!
Target Group
SoCO’s main service targets are those who are discriminated against or neglected by the society, who are generally living in poverty and whose basic livelihood and human rights are not fully protected.SoCO recognizes that behind Hong Kong’s prosperity, there are many forgotten communities, including: cage and sub-divided unit residents, street sleepers, rehabilitated persons, persons in mental recovery, grassroots, poor children, grassroots elders, new immigrants’ families, families of the deceased and patients who have suffered from medical incidents, as well as human rights abused, etc. Their civil rights have not yet been realized due to the lack of a proper system or a flawed social policy.