Awardees

“Ginkgo House” is the first social enterprise in Hong Kong aiming at supporting “Senior employment”. The catering services allow Gingko House to create numerous positions for the seniors. For more than a decade, the company has been growing. Today, besides extending to six restaurants, the company also has its own organic farm, retail products, catering service and the “Wonderful Band” mainly composed of seniors.

Established in 2010, HSBC’s Smart Senior programme in Hong Kong currently has more than 170 retirees distributed across its retail branches. It offers retirees who still want to work an opportunity to do so and strengthens the quality of the Bank’s customer service. The major job responsibilities of Smart Seniors are to promote the use of the Community Caring Corners, promote and demonstrate the use of ATM for elderly at the Corners and greet customers and direct them to the appropriate queues, counter and/or sales and service staff.

Wharf Estates Limited has launched the “Bright Senior Ambassador (BSA) Programme” since 2010 as one of the corporate social responsibility initiatives. It offers re-employment opportunities for retired citizens who would like to extend their contribution to the society. BSAs at Harbour City, Times Square, and Plaza Hollywood are responsible for handling enquiries and offering assistance to shoppers and tourists in the shopping malls. With their diversified background and wealth of experience, they can bring pleasant shopping experience to our customers and widen the horizon of our colleagues.

Carrying over one million passengers daily, New World First Bus (“NWFB”) and Citybus have always been striving to make bus services accessible to all. The Companies listen to views of seniors on bus compartment design and adopt suggestions which are feasible. A wide range of barrier-free facilities on all buses has been actively introduced, including useful and handy passenger information, priority seats and coherent railings from boarding to alighting. Cultivated with a caring mindset, our quality bus captains accommodate to needs of seniors on their every bus trip.

Since 1992, The “Star Ferry” has been offering free rides for elderly passengers aged 65 or above, a programme that is not government subsidised. They can enjoy free rides on ferry services by using the Elder Octopus Card. To date, over 15 million passengers are benefited. To facilitate the elderly citizens, priority seats are provided in both ferries and the waiting concourses at piers. Call bells for wheelchair users are installed.

Uni-China (Market) Management Ltd. has been supporting the promotion of Age- Friendly Community. The Group continues to devote resources to optimise the facilities, environment and services of the markets, creating Age-Friendly Market. The approaches of the Group can fit in with the needs of the elderly, helping to build a friendly community for the aged.

STICKu is a multi-functional smart stick for the elderly, aiming to reduce their risk of falling. It is also hoped that the elderly will be more willing to use the stick which has a more stylish design and multiple functions. It includes an alarm system linked to the mobile application, which can automatically alert people nearby and caretakers of the user if the stick drops and is not picked up. The stick also carries warming and lighting functions which will be automatically turned on and off when there are changes in the temperature and lighting conditions.

Microsoft Hong Kong and Hong Kong Communications (HKC) have jointly developed the MirrorGotchi. Based on Microsoft Azure Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Technology, the elderly just need to stand in front of the MirrorGotchi, it will automatically detect the elderly’s facial expression. After connected with mobile APP and other healthcare devices, caregiver can receive the mirror user’s emotion and healthcare notifications.The elderly can use the infused one-touch Skype video call function to communicate with friends and relatives “face to face”. Moreover, MirrorGotchi also provides news and weather forecast free of charge and provides an alert button for emergency notification.

“Chef Anchor” is a multidisciplinary programme launched by social welfare and business sector. The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council Limited (the Welfare Council) and The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (Towngas) joined hands to respond to this social need by using innovative methods. Occupational therapists and social workers of Welfare Council, as well as Towngas cooking instructors and volunteers worked together, launched a collaborative cooking programme, “Chef Anchor”, to offer training to MCI participants at Towngas’ well-equipped Cooking Centre. Over 160 elderly have participated in the programme so far. The programme is further enhanced with the launch of Hong Kong’s first cognitive training cookbook, “I Can Cook”, and the establishment of the first corporate volunteer team to visit elderly people with MCI, aiming to alleviate the pressure suffered by families and carers.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer has been striving to implement various digital inclusion initiatives, including collaborating with different sectors to implement ICT training and outreach programmes for the elderly, encouraging non-profitmaking organisations to develop mobile apps that cater for the elderly and promoting web accessibility, thereby encouraging them to adopt ICT and inspiring them to embrace smart living.

The Construction Industry Sports & Volunteering Programme encourages practitioners’ participation in volunteering services to give back to society using their professional skills. Services include home repair and moving services for the elderly, visits to the elderly living alone, electrical appliance repair and lightbulb replacement. CISVP volunteers also assist communities in organising maintenance services for residential care homes, giving away fortune bags and volunteering for day-tour services.

Under the service philosophy of “All-rounded Healthy Life”, the NWS Y-Care Centre provides a diverse range of services ranging from day care service, rehabilitation therapy to cognitive training. Rehabilitation bus service is also available for those living in remote areas. The impact of the services has further maximised with the support of volunteer outreach activities, as a result cater to both physical and psychological needs of the elderly and help ease the burden of their care-takers.

HOHOLIFE’s social mission is to promote active aging and support our seniors to agein- place by means of our hundreds of innovative lifestyle products, including mobility, reading, hearing, home safety, daily living, etc. HOHOLIFE also offers professional home assessment and elderly care service for elderly while collaborating with corporate to launch silver market promotions and age-friendly facilitate modification consultations in order to build an age-friendly community together.

csl provides high-performance network service based on cutting-edge technology. csl constantly strives to develop products and services beyond the expectations of customers in order to meet their ever-changing needs. For example, csl has been running workshops for senior citizens since 2012, providing one-to-one tutorial on how to get the best from their smartphones.

STICKu is a multi-functional smart stick for the elderly, aiming to reduce their risk of falling. It is also hoped that the elderly will be more willing to use the stick which has a more stylish design and multiple functions. It includes an alarm system linked to the mobile application, which can automatically alert people nearby and caretakers of the user if the stick drops and is not picked up. The stick also carries warming and lighting functions which will be automatically turned on and off when there are changes in the temperature and lighting conditions.

Adopting the “medical-social-community-business” collaboration model and using health as an intervention point, the project builds a community mutual support network for the elderly in Tai Po District. It promotes communication and interaction between the elderly in need and their carers, arouses the awareness of the needs of the elderly among the resident volunteers and the nursing students, links up with partners through the ABCD Committee to formulate strategies in response to the needs of the elderly, and enables the elderly to tackle health needs in the community with the help of community nurses’ clinics and referral systems.

“The Jockey Club Home Health Watch Programme” is a free health volunteer training programme. It aims at providing training to health volunteers about basic healthcare knowledge and caring skills, so that they can provide basic health support to needy people in the community. Since 2014, we have provided training to over 1,500 volunteers. Most of the trained volunteers are elderly people.

Targeting the robust silver market, Y Silver Link was launched by HKYWCA to provide sale of elderly living products and a series of “elderly home service” for the new elders. Elders are employed as “Senior Home and Living Consultant” to take charge of the store daily operation and regularly organise talks and exhibitions in different organisations. Elder consultant can share their personal experiences and perspectives on different types of silver products, which in a way to meet the needs of an aging society.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer has been striving to implement various digital inclusion initiatives, including collaborating with different sectors to implement ICT training and outreach programmes for the elderly, encouraging non-profitmaking organisations to develop mobile apps that cater for the elderly and promoting web accessibility, thereby encouraging them to adopt ICT and inspiring them to embrace smart living.