Chow Tai Fook Charity Foundation (the Foundation) is committed to helping grassroots families improve their livelihoods. To encourage self-reliance and support working-poor families, and to alleviate the financial pressure of grassroots families, the Foundation set up the “Heart-to-Heart Grassroots Family Support Fund” in 2018. It provides transitional cash assistance and employment counselling services by teaming up with three organisations serving the impoverished communities in Sham Shui Po District, which include the Society for Community Organization, the Hong Kong Federation of Women’s Centres and the J Life Foundation.

Designed to assist grassroots families in meeting their childcare needs, the programme provides support for eligible families for up to one year. After enabling them to settle in, it will also empowers the family members to enter the labour market through employment counselling services. This in turns unleashes the potential of workforce from the grassroots level, and by increasing the working hours and income of the beneficiary families, it also helps reduce their financial stress and creates upward mobility opportunities for them.

Since its launch, the programme has benefited nearly 200 grassroots families in Sham Shui Po up to March 2021. According to an impact assessment conducted by the Good Impact Assessment Institute, around 70% of the families applying for this support scheme have increased their working hours and income. The programme not only allows grassroots families to flexibly strike a balance between career and family needs, but also avoids the pressure in meeting working hours thresholds for applying the Working Family Allowance, as well as the stigma against them towards receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, thus protecting the dignity of the aided.