Learn from
Good Practices

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has partnered with Hong Kong’s four gerontology research institutes to implement the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project (“JCAFC Project”) since 2015. The JCAFC Project aimed to promote an age-friendly culture in all 18 districts. A unique model of bottom-up, district-based, multi-sectoral collaboration and evidence-based approach were adopted in building Hong Kong to an age-friendly city (“AFC”) which can cater for the needs of different ages.

This pioneer model has received support of different stakeholders, including the government, District Councils, academia, non-governmental organisations, business sector and the general public. With concerted efforts, all 18 districts of Hong Kong successfully joined the World Health Organization Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities.  The Project also received international recognition as it was selected as one of the eight solutions around the world to present in the Global Solutions Forum 2020 of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

AFC Profiles of 18 districts of Hong Kong (Chinese version only):
Hong Kong Island
Central and Western | Eastern | Southern | Wan Chai
Kowloon
Kowloon City | Kwun Tong | Sham Shui Po | Wong Tai Sin | Yau Tsim Mong
New Territories
Islands | Kwai Tsing | North | Sai Kung | Sha Tin | Tai Po | Tsuen Wan | Tuen Mun | Yuen Long

Website of JCAFC Project: www.jcafc.hk

Promote age-friendly practices in business community and public sector

The Jockey Club Age-friendly City Partnership Scheme was launched in 2018, 2020 and 2022 respectively to engage different stakeholders, including business community, government departments and public bodies, to adopt age-friendly practices or provide age-friendly products and services. Under the Scheme, seven special awards were designed to appreciate companies or organisations with outstanding performance in promoting age-friendly culture, including encouraging elderly employment, providing convenient and comprehensive facilities for the elderly, designing and providing innovative products and services that meet the needs of the elderly, utilising resources and cooperating with different parties to promote age-friendly measures, develop business opportunities in the silver market, and create inspirational stories through the implementation of age-friendly measures.  Over 180 companies and organisations from different industries, Government departments and social enterprises joined the Scheme in 2018, 2020 and 2020.

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Develop inclusive built environment

To develop a universally accessible environment in the community, the Highways Department has implemented “Universal Accessibility (UA) Programme” to retrofit barrier-free access facilities (e.g. lifts, ramps) at public walkways including public footbridges, elevated walkways, and subways since 2012. The Highways Department also engaged District Councils of 18 districts to prioritise locations with public walkways where they considered lift retrofitting necessary in their respective district. The UA Programme can facilitate to improve the accessibility of the elderly and people in need, for instance, extra-large lift buttons are installed. The Highways Department will continue to implement the UA Programme, with a view to building Hong Kong into an age-friendly and walkable city.

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Develop inclusive built environment

The “Intergenerational Play Space Design Competition: Prosperous Garden” was a design competition co-organised by the Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (JCDISI) and the Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) in 2020. Under the competition, there were university and professional categories that invited participants to form a multi-disciplinary team to redesign the public space in Prosperous Garden of the HKHS, aiming to foster intergenerational harmony with innovative and practical design proposals. The winning innovative projects would serve as a prototype that facilitated the industry for the transformation and creation of more intergenerational play spaces in Hong Kong.

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Make information accessible for older people

To encourage wider adoption of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) among elderly people, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) has launched the ICT Outreach Programme for the Elderly since 2014 to provide funding to non-profit-making organisations to organise outreach activities and training classes for elderly people, such as those with limited mobility and dementia, as well as hidden elderly. With the support from professional social workers and volunteers, elderly people learned to use tablets and other mobile devices to access information, broaden their social circles and integrate into the digital community.

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Create inclusive labour market

Happy-Retired Charity Action (HRCA) is a charitable institution targeting to support young-olds aged 45 or above to develop their second career. HRCA has developed an online platform that provides job matching services for the young-olds seeking job opportunities, and enables employers to identify suitable young-old candidates easily through professional talent search service. HRCA also organised career workshops and recruitment talks to equip young-olds with updated information and skills.

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Create inclusive labour market

To develop an age-friendly working environment in the catering industry, Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (JCDISI) conducted a field study in community kitchen to explore innovative social design solutions. In 2019, JCDISI collaborated with the students of School of Design of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the design consultants to examine the operation of “Chan Un Chan Third Age Volunteers Centre cum Community Kitchen”, which recruited retired people who were 55 or older as staff and volunteers to manage the community kitchen and provided meals for the people in need in the community. After the field study, they put forward a feasible design advice to improve the working conditions of older staff and volunteers.  They also co-designed “The Toolkit for the Age-friendly Community Kitchen” as a reference for the catering industry to make their workplace more age friendly.

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Promote ageing in place 

The Hong Kong Housing Society (HKHS) has launched the Ageing-in-Place Scheme to its rental housing estates since 2012.  As most of the elderly preferred remaining at their familiar homes as long as they wish, the Scheme aimed to promote elderly tenants’ well-being, reduce health decline and avoid premature institutionalisation through proactive reach-out and provision of appropriate services by estate-based social workers to the elderly residents in need that fulfill their needs in housing, health care and social support.

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