Services available to new arrivals and single parents

New Arrivals

1. At present, NAs can have access to a continuum of comprehensive family services in a one-stop manner at the 65 Integrated Family Service Centres (IFSCs) and two Integrated Services Centres (ISCs) over the territory. SWD also continues to offer funding support to an NGO to provide services to NAs.
2. ERB provides training courses to help raise the employability of NAs. The dedicated training courses for NAs cover personal attributes, job search skills, and vocational Cantonese training. ERB’s “Smart Starter” Scheme provides free referral of part-time jobs and follow-up services as well as a host of support services for NA graduates of ERB courses with a view to assisting them to land on jobs, integrate into the society and sustain in employment.
3. Apart from employment services available to job seekers in general, a dedicated webpage has been set up on LD’s iES website to facilitate NA job seekers, including NA women, to search for suitable vacancies and other employment information.
4. For eligible public rental housing applicants, if at least half of the family members under their applications have lived in Hong Kong for seven years and all members are still living in Hong Kong at the time of flat allocation, a public rental housing unit will be allocated to them. All family members under the age of 18 are deemed to have satisfied the seven-year residence rule if they are born in Hong Kong with established permanent resident status, or one of their parents has resided in Hong Kong for seven years. To assist NAs to integrate into the local community, since 2011, HAD has been organising activities, such as workshops, interest classes, visits, etc. for them.

Single parents

5. At present, single parent families, like NA families, can have access to a continuum of comprehensive family services, including some services which were not available in the single parent centres, at the 65 IFSCs and two ISCs over the territory.
6. Compassionate rehousing (CR) is a form of special housing assistance, which aims at providing housing assistance to individuals and families with genuine and imminent long-term housing needs but, owing to their social and medical needs (if applicable) under specific circumstances, have no other feasible means to solve their housing problems. Conditional tenancy under CR aims at providing assistance to those persons who have filed petitions for divorce and have genuine and imminent long-term housing needs with no other feasible means to solve their housing problems owing to their social and medical needs (if applicable) under specific circumstances. The number of women benefited from these initiatives was as below –