Friday, January 14, 2005

Beatles' Strawberry Field and the Salvation Army

Find this news item from another blog -
當草莓田不再的時候...

Never thought that the "deinstitutionalization movement" (and the preference of foster care service over institution-based services) would somehow relate to the Beatles' song.

In Hong Kong, children's homes like St. Christopher's Home has long turned into private housing properties (鹿茵山莊) and made lots of $$$ (by Cheung Kong and the Anglican Church??)... So don't think the present day St. Christopher's Home is really a physical building/home; nowadays its main service model is called Small Group Homes which are scattered in various public housing estates.

Hope the UK Salvation Army would decide to keep Strawberry Field and use it for some meaningful purposes instead of turning it into a redevelopment project...

Residential Child Care Services in Hong Kong

Service Description
Residential child care services are provided for children and young persons under the age of 21 who cannot be adequately cared for by their families because of various reasons such as behaviour, emotional or relationship problems, or family crises arising from illness, death and desertion.

Types of Services
Non-institutional Care includes:
  • Foster care -- for children under 18 years of age
  • Emergency foster care - for children under 18 years of age
  • Small group homes -- for children from 4 to 18 years of age
Institutional Care includes:
  • Residential creches -- for babies under 2 years of age
  • Residential nurseries -- for children aged from 2 to under 6
  • Children's reception centres -- for children aged under 18 years of age
  • Children's homes -- for children or young persons between 6 and under 21 years of age
  • Boys'/girls' homes -- for children or young persons between 7 and under 21 years of age with behavioural or emotional problems. Schools for Social Development are run within some of these homes
  • Boys'/girls' hostels -- for young persons between 14 and under 21 years of age who are studying or working

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