Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project Press Briefing
The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust joins hands with Hong Kong’s four gerontology research institutes to implement the Jockey Club Age-friendly City Project which aims to build an age-friendly Hong Kong. A press briefing was held on 20 May 2016 at Happy Valley Racecourse to announce the results of baseline assessment of age-friendliness of eight pilot districts.
Mr Leong Cheung, Executive Director, Charities and Community of The Hong Kong Jockey Club welcomed the participants and briefed them on the Trust’s Elderly Strategy and background information of the Project, followed by the announcement of the baseline assessment results by Professor Jean Woo, Director of the CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing; Professor Terry Lum, Associate Director of Sau Po Centre on Ageing of The University of Hong Kong; and Dr Carol Ma, Adjunct Research Fellow at the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies of Lingnan University. The baseline research assessed the current age-friendliness of elders in the eight districts based on the views of over 4,200 respondents in surveys and focus groups on the eight Age-friendly City domains including social participation; transportation; communication and information; outdoor spaces and buildings; respect and social inclusion; civic participation and employment; housing; and community support and health services. The results showed that respondents rated social participation and transportation most favourably, while housing and community support and health services were seen as areas for improvement. Among different age groups, there was a noticeable trend of the elderly giving higher scores than younger respondents to outdoor spaces and buildings, transportation, housing, civic participation and employment, and community support and health services.
Professor Jean Woo also introduced the three priority directions for action, namely building Hong Kong into a more friendly city for people of different ages; encouraging the elderly to participate in community activities; and promoting social inclusion. Moving forward, the project teams will work closely with District Councils and community partners to develop three-year action plans with indicators to monitor progress. The bottom-up and district-based approach will be an effective way of building an age-friendly city and ensuring a long-lasting and sustainable impact on local communities, so as to enhance quality of life of the elderly in Hong Kong.
