Parallel Workshops

Policy advocacy, grassroots organising and community service to anti-working poverty in Hong Kong

Abstract:

Working poverty is a critical cause of the long-lasting poverty problem in Hong Kong. NGOs and scholars in Hong Kong have advocated for the Government to set up a minimum wage, working family allowance and also lobby business to join the living wage campaign to alleviate the deteriorating working poor problem. Grassroots organisations simultaneously organised co-op, community currency, and open market to serve the working poor. This workshop invited advocators and organisers from Oxfam Hong Kong and Concern for Grassroots’ Livelihood Alliance with scholars concerned with the grassroots workers, to examine and review the advocacy and service development for the working poor and explore its future.

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Parallel Workshop 1B

​Equipping at-risk youths with strength-based holistic approach: Instilling hope for career and life development

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a new normal for the labour market, which has become increasingly competitive and unfavourable to at-risk youths who already face numerous challenges in their growth. To help these youths find hope for their career and life development (CLD), it is crucial for youth social work practitioners and those aspiring to become youth social work practitioners to provide CLD services with strength-based holistic approach. This approach involves identifying and utilising the inner strengths and resources of at-risk youths to overcome obstacles encountered on their CLD journey and build their resilience to face the ever-changing labour market. By empowering at-risk youths with this approach, they can develop a positive self-image and instill hope, ultimately leading to sustainable meaningful engagement and smoother school-to-work transitions. To meet these needs, the workshop will introduce the Ecosystem-based Navigation-oriented CLD Competencies Framework and CLD interventions derived from the strength-based holistic approach. Additionally, the workshop will provide experiential learning opportunities to use corresponding interventional tools, such as Expanded Notion of Work (ENOW) Mapping, ENOW-Values, Attitudes, Skills, and Knowledge (VASK) Card Sort, and CV360®, to facilitate CLD service provision.

Parallel Workshop 1C

Meanings, stories, and empowerment: An existential narrative approach to supporting at-risk youths and parents with substance abuse concerns

Abstract:

While the significance of helping people with substance abuse concerns to create meaning from past life events and reconstruct their self-identities has been highlighted in previous literature, how existential narrative interventions can facilitate the storytelling, meaning-making, and self-empowerment of these target groups is still unclear. This workshop will introduce an existential narrative approach to substance abuse and youth counseling. It will discuss how this approach contributes substantially by rethinking the meanings of risk-taking behaviours and supporting practitioners to delve into the lived experiences of people involved in problematic substance use. Furthermore, this workshop will underline the importance of understanding the existential concerns and facilitating the identity transformation of people with substance use problems. The goals and key components of this approach, intervention strategies, case examples, programme designs, and some practical skills will also be discussed in this workshop.