The BUddy Post – HKBU Alumni Affairs Office

Alumna Anthea Lee Shuk-wai (Social Work) has upheld the conviction of serving with utmost sincerity in the field of family service and rehabilitation service, be it playing the role as frontline or management. She has strived to implement policy reform and explore new services in the organisation she serves, with a view to aiding the service targets from a macro perspective. Currently Chief Executive of SideBySide, alumna Lee shared with us her journey in the social welfare sector for over 25 years.

Determined to Serve Others

Though alumna Lee studied science subjects in secondary school, she was more inclined to join the professional service areas to help people in need. For her tertiary education, she chose HKBU due to its cozy ambience where she could experience the teachers’ sincerity from the Department of Social Work during the interview. When touched upon the unforgettable moments during her undergraduate years, two major experiences popped up in Anthea’s mind. She said, “The first one was the time when I sat on the staircase of William M.W. Mong Courtyard and talked cheerfully with classmates and seniors, usually after class. Another one was the experience of joining the committee of the Social Work Society, which laid me a solid foundation on an organisation’s operation, constitution and meeting rules, facilitating me to manage an organisation later.” In undergraduate years, Anthea also represented HKBU to discuss with related government officials and students of other tertiary education institutions on social welfare issues, which was not only an eye-opening experience for her, but also established a strong foundation for her to develop her career in the sector.

View from a Broad Perspective with a Meticulous Mind

Alumna Lee served in a family service NGO after graduation, handling a number of family violence cases. After accumulating several years of experience, she gradually realised that the key to offer impactful assistance to the needy people was to intervene from a broader perspective, such as collaborating with external parties for securing more service resources. At that time, she saw a job advertisement of a management post from SideBySide, and hence she decided to give it a try in a new service area, starting a new page on managing an NGO and developing services. In retrospect of the 17 years served at SideBySide, Anthea could hardly forget the experience of operating a social enterprise. She elaborated, “We liaised with a Korean catering group for granting us a franchise right, in the hope of building the image of social enterprise while enabling our service targets to integrate into society through working in the social enterprise. Although the project was seized later considering its cost-effectiveness, its coverage in media actually raised the public awareness on the work of the organisation successfully. Overall speaking, it was a valuable learning opportunity.” After going through trials and errors, Anthea has learnt that an ideal plan should be realistic and compatible with operations, driving her to make more comprehensive and detailed plans in the future.

Embrace Those Who Make Mistakes

As a Chinese saying goes, “If one can change after making a mistake, there is nothing better.” In response to the saying, alumna Lee shared with us her experience that she encountered several service targets who ignored her advice and made repeated mistakes. She articulated her view on making mistakes, “The progress of rehabilitation differs for each individual. Even though the targets currently have no intention to change themselves, we should give them opportunities and show them care as they need acceptance by society. I anticipate that after they get accepted by society, they will be inspired to behave themselves and motivated to learn something new which can help improve their living standard. When they feel that they are still accepted by the society and have not been given up, they will be more determined to change their ways and have greater motivation to change their behavior, habit patterns and even their way of thinking. Moreover, when we contact the clients, especially in the initial stage of establishing a relationship, the focus should not only be on his/her faults and remorse, but guide them to pursue a better life and make them feel hopeful. This also makes them more willing to reform from the heart. In this way, they will genuinely rectify and start afresh.” Alumna Lee shared that when providing services to the persons in mental recovery, she also sticks to this belief and shows them care. Even if the service users are still troubled by mental problems, they can still have hope in life. Anthea holds this belief tight and thus she leads the organisation to advocate inclusivity in order to promote acceptance of the disadvantaged groups by society. Meanwhile, Anthea believes that prevention is better than cure, so she has led the team to actively publicise crime prevention through arranging some education programmes with immersive mock court experience, as well as converting The Former North Kowloon Magistracy (a Grade 2 historic building) into the “NK Future”. The project will set up a universal judicial education centre to continue the judicial spirit and traditions of the Magistracy in the community. It will also use the building as a starting point to connect the communities with heritage assets of the district, linking up traditional and new cultural resources so as to promote local culture and creative arts.

Give Others a Hand and Sail Together

Alumna Lee has stayed true to her belief and continuously served in different NGOs for over 25 years. Though she now focuses on managing the organisation and strategic planning, she still likes to learn from people and communicate with people from all walks of life, as interaction with different people is a source of inspiration in her work. She believes that the key to help service targets is to advance with the times, in addition to keeping her original intention. She hopes she can pass on the torch of lighting up others, and gives advice to the younger generation who is interested to serve in the social welfare sector, “We should not only keep our faith, but also need to observe the times and think from multiple perspectives. Furthermore, we have to walk with service targets and commit to improving their long-term well-being, which will eventually help them create changes.”