Advocate for Equal Opportunities with High-quality Products and Services

"We are a group of people with mental illness. Like other ordinary people, we provide excellent goods and services." Fai said with full confidence. Fai suffered from depression after his bankruptcy in 2000, but now he has been employed in our New Life Healthy Living Specialty/ Organic Shop.

Fai had his own clothing business and a happy family when he was young. Nonetheless, these were all teared apart after the financial turmoil in 1997. The nightmare pushed Fai beyond his breaking point and he started to suffer from depression. After recovery, Fai wished to go back to the employment market, but in vain, due to discrimination and the fact that the chances for people with mental illness being employed were just too slim.

Yet, even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. Since 2007 when he worked as a shop assistant in our New Life Healthy Living Specialty/ Organic Shop, Fai gradually regained his self-confidence and was being able to integrate into the society again. Words are not enough to describe how appreciative he is of being granted this valuable working opportunity.

In 1993, with funding from Community Chest, we developed Supported Employment Service with the aim of providing training in real work setting for people with mental illness. Supported Employment Service aims at providing people with mental illness with vocational guidance, systematic training, professional individual counseling and on-going support, so that they can participate in productive and gainful employment in the open market while enjoying basic rights at work such as income equivalent to market value and job security. On-site training of various work trades including retailing, car cleaning, venue cleaning and catering are provided by experienced job coaches for service users. Besides, placement officers actively select competent users for prospective employers who are interested in offering job placements.

Since 2001, we have extended our services to serve the socially disadvantaged groups including able bodied Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients through the Special Job Attachment Programme (SJAP) and subsequently the Intensive Employment Assistance Projects (IEAPs). In 2006, we started to operate the New Dawn IEAP service in Wong Tai Sin District to serve those single parents with dependent children aged 12 – 15. The project provided job-related skills training, intensive job matching as well as on-going support and counseling to help them re-enter the job market.

After running the Supported Employment Service for 15 years, experiences told us that a one-stop vocational rehabilitation service centre would be desirable. The new Supported Employment Service Centre started operation in March 2008. The centre provides a wide range of services including "Supported Employment Service", "Intensive Employment Assistance Projects", "Enhanced New Dawn Intensive Employment Assistance Project" and "On-the-Job Training Programme for People with Disabilities". The center is furnished with a resource corner where placement officers are there providing enquiry service for those in need of consultation. Other facilities in the centre include audio-visual equipment, computer sets and related computer learning softwares to assist service users in job seeking, 2 counseling rooms where mock interviews can take place and a multi-function room to conduct training courses such as courses jointly organised with Employees Retraining Board (ERB) or Vocational Training Council (VTC) on cleaning, retailing, catering and security guard services.