The kick-off seminar “Parent-child Relationships and Communication” of a parenting seminar series was successfully held in Pok Oi Kong Ha Wai Village by Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) today (29 August). Jerry Chui Ka-yin, Principal of Carmel Divine Grace Foundation Secondary School, was the guest speaker, and Ir Dr Conrad Wong Tin-cheung, Council Chairman of HKMU, delivered the welcome speech for the seminar.

Ir Dr Wong is committed to promoting parent education, especially popularising parent education in grassroots families. He believes that good parent education is crucial for the well-being and development of children. “We are grateful to the Pok Oi Kong Ha Wai Village Families Development Centre for supporting the idea of promoting parent education in transitional housing,” he said. “Well-educated children are the pride of their parents and the hope and future of Hong Kong society.” To encourage more parents to join the seminars and courses, supermarket and catering cash coupons sponsored by HKMU and enthusiastic enterprises were given to grassroots parent participants. HKMU will continue to actively cooperate with more companies to provide different types of support for parents who participate in the “HKMU Parenting Hub”.

The “HKMU Parenting Hub” is currently promoting more than a dozen parenting courses in the “Capacity Building Mileage Programme (CBMP)” and launching two series of lectures for different target audiences from August 2023. The two lectures series include the “Dialogue with Celebrities on Parenting Education” seminar series, which is open to public and will be broadcast on TVB Pearl's “Knowledge for All” programme, and a seminar series in transitional housing. HKMU's research team will track grassroots families and evaluate their achievements in improving parent-child relationships, parenting skills, and their children's whole-person development after participating in relevant seminars and courses. HKMU is also planning to produce a series of short videos to provide solutions to common parenting problems in an interesting way. Since the beginning of the year, HKMU has joined hands with the Education Bureau and the Women's Commission to promote the CBMP parenting courses, and nearly 500 people have signed up so far. In partnership with the Society for Community Organization (SoCO), HKMU offers free courses to more than 70 grassroots parents in Sham Shui Po.