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Complex issues require innovative solutions. Facing social issues that has been long around, how can we do things differently? Let’s find out through the lens of “Collab Fest”.
Collab Fest is an event hosted by Link which establishes a platform for charitable organisations, social enterprises and social innovators to collaborate and explore new solutions to promote youth empowerment programmes and create greater value for communities. The first phase of the event – Networking Day took place at Link’s headquarters in September. Organisations which were matched later submitted their proposals for screening, where shortlisted proposals were invited to present and compete on Pitching Day in October at the Link Sustainability Lab. Novel ideas such as incorporating new tech to promote a traditional team sport like dragonboating, or encouraging cross-generation bonding through traditional Chinese pastry making were just examples of some of the great ideas that came out of this organic experiment.
On 21 October, Pitching Day, shortlisted teams were invited to present their proposals in front of a panel of judges. A project named Draw Your Own Legend which aims at helping institutionalised boarders with special education needs (SEN) connect with society, impressed the judges so much, that they took home a $100,000 cash prize to help turn the pitch into reality.
Jointly conceived by the Hong Kong Student Aid Society, StartChing Ltd., and Rolling Books Ltd., Draw Your Own Legend proposed recruiting and training university student leaders on planning, editing and producing a picture bookmaking training. With these trainings, they will then work with SEN children and youths at Island Hostel in Tuen Mun, teaching them how to express their feelings and stories through the medium. These works will be showcased at community exhibitions to help raise social awareness of accommodation and care services for youth and children. The judges unanimously agreed that the pitch pinpoints a social issue that has not received the needed attention, provides rich suggestions to address it, has gravity that draws different sectors in society to collectively help the needy, and leverages the strengths of each organisation that the team member represents. The harmony that the trio holds was a perfect reflection of the theme of Collab Fest.
To the team behind Draw Your Own Legend, from connecting with each other through the Link Collab Fest, being able to leverage each other’s resources and finally securing the cash prize to complete the proposal, each step of the way came as a pleasant surprise. The founder of StarChing said, “The biggest challenges I had while engaging in similar projects in the past were finding the right partners and identifying the beneficiaries. This is why I was thrilled to be able to help the children at Island Hostel, partnering with two of my new peers.” On the other hand, Rolling Books founder James Chong shared that he can bring in storytelling and drawing instructors from his organisation to teach university students the essential skills for them to pass on to the younger children, nurturing two young generations at once.
Bryony Wong, who’s responsible for promotion and fundraising at the Hong Kong Student Aid Society, said the collaboration between the three groups was the best that she could ask for. “Our shared goal is to help society understand that in Hong Kong, there are children who aren’t able to live with their families due to various reasons,” she said, adding that as many as 82% of these children fall into the SEN category. “We hope that through drawing their own stories, it would allow people to understand them in a more personal way, and also raise awareness about the help they need.” To James of Rolling Books, the project’s goal is to help the children build confidence and connections with society, while the aesthetics of the drawing is secondary.
All three parties were thrilled that the outcome has exceeded expectation, described the collaboration as truly “greater than the sum of its parts”. “At the moment, we can’t wait to put the plan in action, turn our ideas into reality as soon as possible, and let the children “draw their own legends.”
All of the great pitches presented would not have been this high-calibre, refined and well-rounded without guidance from a group of seasoned veterans in the industry. Back in September, Link held two networking days to provide participating organisations with the opportunity to explore potential collaborative partners; Hong Kong Student Aid Society and StartChing were among the ones that had found each other and were fond of each other. At the same occasion, social service experts experienced in cross-sector collaboration including non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and social innovators were invited to share industry best practices, identifying the issue to tackle, as well as tips to maximising and snowballing social impact.
Benjamin Sin, Senior Social Work Supervisor at Caritas MCSK Community Centre, told participants that the key to cross-sector collaboration is well utilising existing resources. With a trusted network of “friendly” organisations and a new face of the brand comes greater freedom to seek out new partners. When each collaborative partner effectively becomes “superconnectors” of each other, social innovation will no longer be a lofty goal.
Dr Ca Tse, Chief Architect (Youth and Social Entrepreneurship) at Fullness Social Enterprises Society, shared that cross-sector collaboration empowers the disadvantaged to take a new step towards long-term self-reliance, and creating a mutually beneficial ecosystem is key to achieve this goal. “Before executing a collaborative project, all involved parties must carry out a comprehensive assessment balancing ideals with current issues, business with resources, networks with relationships to deduce what additional resource is required. Finally, it is important to ensure the issue which the project addresses are of the end user’s interest.”
Regarding Youth Empowerment, the selected focus of Collab Fest, Corn Sim, Senior Service Supervisor for New Territories West at The Salvation Army, believes that society should not limit its support towards youth to only volunteering and other individual experiences, but rather hold the belief that every single youth is capable of becoming a leader. “Leadership experiences are what help shape the youth to build a sense of responsibility and mission, which lead to exert greater influence within communities down the line.”
Cindy Ng, Senior Manager, Programmes and Services at KELY Support Group, said that if a project is designed to serve young people, especially when peer support plays a part in it, it is important to let the voices of young people be heard in the planning process. “By following their pace, we ultimately want to empower them into making positive changes in their attitude and behaviour. It would be much more effective if we help them help each other.
Link Collab Fest is held in commemoration of the 10th Anniversary of Link Together Initiatives. Link believes that only through collaboration with all sectors, leveraging each other's unique strengths, will there be new chemistry that powers us through the ever-changing challenges in society.
