Media

The Jockey Club Intergenerational Learning and Reading Project (the Project) will hold a graduation ceremony on January 7, 2023 (Saturday) for its young-old (aged 50+) graduates to celebrate their joyfulness and achievements with families and friends. This innovative project, which spanned over one year, aims to help young-olds stay young cognitively. It serves as an intergenerational and life-enriching collaboration by engaging young-olds as teachers for children mainly from K3 and P1 in a series of educational and interesting intergenerational activities, including (1) reading children books and creating higher-order thinking questions about the stories, (2) writing digital books, (3) storytelling, (4) poem recitation, (5) sing-along, and (6) drama activities.

The Project, administered by the Faculty of Education of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, has brought significant improvement to seniors’ cognitive health and psychological well-being through intellectually challenging regular trainings. The Project has built a large young-old community with members who share the same interests. Under the Project, members practised to memorise lyrics and scripts, and developed communication skills and teamwork spirit. They made new friends and were happier than they could ever think of. Happy seniors are more likely to have better mental and physical heath, and would be less dependent on the government’s medical and welfare services, hence may help easing the government’s financial burden in the long run.  

Members of the media are welcome to attend the event to learn more about how the Project has benefitted the young-olds and the children they taught, and how it could help reduce government expenditures in the long run. Details are as follows:

Date:                                January 7, 2023 (Saturday)
Time:                               10:30 am – 1:30 pm (Media registration time: 10:20 am)
Mode:                              Face-to-Face
Venue:                             Grand Hall, Lee Shau Kee Lecture Centre, Centennial Campus, HKU,               
                                          Pokfulam, Hong Kong (HKU MTR Station Exit C1)
Rundown:
10:30 am – 10:35 am   Welcome speech
                                          Dr Samuel Chu, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, HKU
10:35 am – 10:55 am    Keynote speech
                                          Professor Matthew Kaplan, Department of Agricultural Economics,
                                          Sociology, and Education, College of Agricultural Sciences,
                                          Pennsylvania State University (via ZOOM)
10:55 am – 12:00 am   Award presentation ceremony
12:00 nn – 1:30 pm      Showcase performances 
                                          - Intergenerational Choir
                                          - Storytelling Champions
                                          - Intergenerational Drama Team
Language:                       Cantonese (supplemented with English)

For media enquiries, please contact Ivy Chan, Project Manager of the Jockey Club Intergenerational Learning and Reading Project (Tel: 3917 4314 / Email: ivychan6@hku.hk), or Ms Emily Cheung, Senior Manager (Development and Communications), Faculty of Education, HKU (Tel: 3917 4270 / Email: emchy@hku.hk).