Media Events

About Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project

Initiated by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust in 2018 with a donation of over HK$157 million, the four-year Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project is a cross-sectoral collaboration to advance the use of Information and Communications Technology (“ICT”) in family services. The Project aims to devise an innovative and evidence-based family service delivery model that leverages the effective use of ICT and data analytics to enable service users to better benefit from preventive, supportive and early remedial services provided by all 26 NGO-operated Integrated Family Service Centres and Integrated Service Centres to promote family well-being. The Project develops an online platform for capacity building, co-creation and co-learning of frontline staff; and organises public education and knowledge transfer programmes to strengthen family functioning. For more information, visit www.jcsmartfamilylink.hk.

(11 November 2018, Hong Kong) To promote family harmony, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust initiated and funded over HK$157 million to implement the four-year Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project. The project was launched today, with Dr Law Chi-kwong, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, HKSAR Government; Mrs Margaret Leung, Steward of The Hong Kong Jockey Club and Professor Paul K.H. Tam, Acting President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) officiating the ceremony. HKU shared about the survey findings of the “Information Communications Technology (ICT) and Hong Kong Family Communication”, while the 12 NGO project partners organized game booths in the community event to promote family health information to the public.

Dr Law Chi-kwong, Secretary for Labour and Welfare, HKSAR Government expressed, “I welcome the launch of the Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project which promotes the migration of social service delivery towards intelligentisation. I believe that the adoption of ICT will help enhance the efficiency of social welfare service providers in different aspects, with a view to providing better support for service users.”

Mrs Margaret Leung, Steward of The Hong Kong Jockey Club said the Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project encouraged the effective use of ICT to provide innovative family services and enhance family harmony. “The Club has always been committed to improving the lives of Hong Kong people through multi-sector collaboration. Combining the cross-sectoral efforts of the academic and social welfare sectors, this project aimed at helping 26 NGO-operated Integrated Family Service Centres and Integrated Service Centres reduce their administrative work and enhance the quality and efficiency of their family services with the use of information and communications technology and big data analysis,” she explained.

The Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project is initiated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust. The project aims to devise an innovative and evidence-based family service delivery model that leverages the effective use of ICT and data analytics to enable service users to better benefit from preventive, supportive and early remedial services provided by all 26 NGO-operated Integrated Family Service Centres (IFSCs) and Integrated Service Centres (ISCs) to promote family well-being.

The Project will also develop i-Connect, a content management system, for IFSCs to reduce manual input and administrative work, and perform data analysis both at centre level and aggregated across centres and NGOs. The project will also promote the use of ICT tools in service delivery to facilitate more families to access family services. An online platform will also be developed to facilitate IFSCs frontline staff to share information and best practice for effective learning and capacity building.

It is anticipated that about 75,000 individuals and around 1,000 social workers will benefit directly from the Project. Through public education events, web portal and social media, the project will also increase the understanding of healthy family functioning for 170,000 people.

The project is also a cross-sectoral collaboration with HKU School of Public Health and Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative, along with 12 NGO partners. Professor Paul K.H. Tam, Acting President and Vice-Chancellor of HKU said “We are delighted to be the project’s partner and working with other partnered NGOs with the generous support from the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.”

HKU “ICT and Hong Kong Family Communication” survey findings

Professor Lam Tai-hing, Sir Robert Kotewall Professor in Public Health, Chair Professor of Community Medicine of School of Public Health, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, HKU and Principal Investigator of the Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project announced the survey findings of “ICT and Hong Kong Family Communication”.

The survey was conducted by telephone in February to May in 2017 with 1,638 successful cases. It found out over 72% of the respondents have family e-chat groups, of which one third have three or more family e-chat groups. Over 90% of the family e-chat group users receive or send at least one message daily.

Professor Lam said family e-chat group users have higher scores in subjective happiness, family communication, family health and harmony; and respondents use family e-chat groups more frequently were associated with higher scores in subjective happiness, family communication, and family health and harmony. He further recommended the public to make good use of ICT for family communication, and to strengthen family relationships.

NGOs leverage effective use of ICT to enhance family services

Professor Ricky Kwok, Associate Vice-President (Teaching & Learning), Professor of HKU Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Co-Investigator of the Jockey Club SMART Family-Link Project introduced i-Connect, the content management system developed for IFSCs under the project.

The Project will also promote the use of ICT in service delivery, programme design and planning in family services. A community event was held on the same day for NGO partners to showcase the use of different ICT tools, for example mobile apps, interactive games and etc., to engage the service users in a fun and interactive way. The experience learnt from this community event will be shared across sector for furthering the professionals’ skills and knowledge.

– End –