About Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups

Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups

The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, known by the abbreviation HKFYG, is Hong Kong's largest youth service organisation and a non-profit body committed to the physical, social, educational, cultural and emotional development of young people. Founded in 1960, the Federation has grown over more than six decades from a small coordinating body for youth work into a city-wide network of more than 80 service units that organise around 25,000 activities a year, with annual attendance approaching six million. It engages over 460,000 registered members and more than 230,000 registered volunteers, and its stated motto, "HKFYG — Here for You", expresses its commitment to standing alongside young people as they face the challenges of growing up.

The Federation is headquartered at 21 Pak Fuk Road in North Point, in the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups Building. Its income comes primarily from government subvention, supplemented by grants from the Community Chest of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, other trust funds, programme fees and private and corporate donations. Its official website is hkfyg.org.hk, and its twelve core services span neighbourhood youth centres, multimedia, employment, youth-at-risk work, counselling, parenting, leadership training, volunteering, education, creativity and exchange, leisure and sport, and research and publications.

Founding in 1960

The Federation was founded in 1960 by George Stokes, who had been sent to Hong Kong by the British Christian Welfare Council to develop local youth services. Hong Kong in that period was absorbing large numbers of refugee families, and organised provision for young people was fragmented among churches, charities and neighbourhood groups. A federation could coordinate that provision, share experience among youth workers and speak for the sector. The organisation was registered as a society in 1962 and incorporated in 1970, giving it a durable legal form as its work expanded.

In its first decade the Federation set up youth centres in public housing estates and developed camps for recreational purposes on the outskirts of the urban areas in the mid to late 1960s. Those two settings — the estate youth centre and the outdoor camp — remained characteristic of its approach: meeting young people where they lived, and giving them structured activity, adult mentorship and peer community outside school hours.

Growth of the service network

From its housing-estate beginnings, the Federation built a network that now numbers over 80 service units across Hong Kong. Its best-known neighbourhood presence is the network of Youth S.P.O.Ts — youth centres that provide space and opportunity for young people to learn and develop, of which there are more than twenty. Around 25,000 activities are organised each year across the network, and attendance at its programmes stands at nearly six million a year, a scale that makes the Federation one of the most frequently encountered social-service organisations in the daily life of Hong Kong families.

The Federation's membership system underpins that reach. Over 460,000 registered members are engaged through its online membership platform and mobile app, and its volunteer base exceeds 230,000 registered volunteers, making organised youth volunteering one of its defining contributions to Hong Kong civic life. In 1996 it began rehabilitation services with two small group homes for children and teenagers with mild intellectual disabilities, and in 1998 it established a Youth Volunteer Network to promote volunteerism among young people, institutionalising work that later developed into its dedicated volunteer services.

Twelve core services

The Federation organises its work into twelve core services. They are the Youth S.P.O.Ts neighbourhood centres; M21 multimedia services; employment services; youth-at-risk services; counselling services; parenting services; leadership training; volunteer services; education services; creativity education and youth exchange; leisure, cultural and sports services; and research and publications. The breadth of the list reflects a deliberate whole-person model: the same organisation that runs a sports programme also offers counselling, helps a school-leaver find work, supports parents, and studies youth trends so that services can be adjusted to evidence.

Individual programmes illustrate the model in practice. The Federation has taken an active role in anti-drug work in secondary schools, producing tens of thousands of anti-drug resource packs for distribution to schools, and its counselling services have included work helping teenagers avoid group violence and learn conflict-handling skills. Employment services support young people's transition from school to work, while parenting services recognise that youth outcomes are shaped at home as well as in the centre.

Multimedia and youth media: M21

Among the Federation's most distinctive services is M21, its multimedia youth media platform. M21 gives young people facilities and training to produce their own media, and it serves as the Federation's online broadcasting presence, carrying programmes, interviews and youth-produced content. In a media environment in which young people are usually audiences rather than producers, M21 was designed to reverse the roles, teaching production skills while providing a channel through which youth views reach the wider community.

The multimedia service sits within the Federation's wider digital engagement. Members connect through its online platform and app, and its centres and programmes maintain an active online presence, so that the physical network of youth centres is matched by a digital one. That combination became part of how the Federation sustained contact with young people as their social lives moved increasingly online.

Counselling, youth at risk and parenting

Counselling and youth-at-risk services form the Federation's safety net for young people in difficulty. Its teams work with teenagers facing family conflict, school problems, emotional distress and the pull of gangs or drugs, including outreach to young night drifters — teenagers spending nights away from home in public places — a service extended in districts such as Tseung Kwan O and Sai Kung from the early 2000s. The aim is early, non-judgmental contact that reconnects young people with family, school and services before problems harden.

Parenting services complement this work from the family side, offering parents guidance, education and support. The Federation's model treats the family as the primary setting of youth development, so its counsellors and social workers work with parents alongside young people rather than treating the teenager in isolation. Together, the counselling, at-risk and parenting services make the Federation a significant part of Hong Kong's front-line child and youth welfare provision, funded in part through the Community Chest allocations that support member agencies across the sector.

Leadership training and volunteering

Leadership training is one of the Federation's signature contributions. Its leadership programmes, developed from the early 2000s under the Leadership 21 initiative and later housed in a dedicated leadership institute, provide comprehensive leadership training for young people aged roughly from 15 to 34, with the stated aim of ensuring a pool of high-quality leaders for Hong Kong's development in the twenty-first century. Courses, camps and overseas exchanges teach public speaking, project management and social responsibility, and alumni of the programmes are a visible presence in Hong Kong public life.

Volunteer services run in parallel. With more than 230,000 registered volunteers, the Federation operates one of the largest organised volunteer pools in Hong Kong, matching young volunteers to community service, elderly visiting, environmental projects and large public events. Volunteering serves a double purpose in the Federation's model: it delivers help to the community, and it is itself a form of youth development, giving participants responsibility, teamwork experience and a stake in society.

Education services and schools

The Federation entered formal education at the turn of the century. Its first primary school opened in Tin Shui Wai in 2000, the HKFYG Lee Shau Kee Primary School, and in 2008 it opened the HKFYG Lee Shau Kee College, extending its educational work into secondary schooling. Running schools made the Federation a school-sponsoring body as well as a youth-service agency, applying its developmental approach within the formal curriculum and school day.

Alongside its own schools, the Federation's creativity education and education services run programmes in partnership with schools across Hong Kong, including innovation and technology scholarships and competitions organised with government and corporate sponsors. The Innovation and Technology Scholarship, jointly sponsored by the Innovation and Technology Commission and HSBC and organised by the Federation since 2011, is an example of this partnership model, providing elite training opportunities for outstanding local undergraduates in science and technology fields.

Employment, entrepreneurship and exchange

Employment services help young people move from education into work, through career guidance, training and job-matching. The Federation has promoted youth entrepreneurship since 2002 through Youth Business Hong Kong, which supports young people starting their own businesses with training, mentoring and seed support. Its entrepreneurship work later extended to the Greater Bay Area, including participation in the Qianhai Shenzhen–Hong Kong Youth Innovation and Entrepreneur Hub, giving Hong Kong start-up founders a base in Shenzhen.

Youth exchange is the twelfth strand of the model. The Federation organises exchanges that take Hong Kong young people to mainland China and overseas, and receives visiting youth groups in return. Combined with its leisure, cultural and sports services — camps, arts programmes, sports competitions and interest classes across its centres — the exchange work reflects the founding idea that development happens through experience and encounter, not only through instruction.

Youth research and publications

The Federation maintains a Youth Research Centre that has conducted evidence-based studies of Hong Kong young people for over twenty-five years. Its surveys and reports cover topics such as youth employment, mental well-being, education aspirations and attitudes to society, and they are regularly cited by Hong Kong media and policymakers. The research function distinguishes the Federation from a purely service-delivering agency: it generates the data on which both its own programme planning and public discussion of youth issues rest.

Research and publications complete the twelve core services, and they connect the Federation's practice to policy. Findings from its centres — what counsellors, youth workers and employment officers observe — are tested against survey evidence, and the results feed submissions and commentary on youth policy. For a directory of Hong Kong organisations, the HKFYG is a central entry: founded in 1960, incorporated in 1970, and now operating over 80 service units with nearly six million annual attendances, it is the city's largest youth service organisation and a fixture of Hong Kong social welfare.