Kwai Tsing District's (KWTDIST) "Project New Dawn" identifies mentally disordered persons who require service referrals at an early stage. The project also provides multi-disciplinary support for those persons and their families.
The project has adopted three main strategies: strengthening training for frontline officers, early identification of cases, and a multi-disciplinary approach for intervention.
This year, "Project New Dawn" has been awarded the Gold Prize of the Specialised Service Award of the Civil Service Outstanding Service Award Scheme 2013. It also ranks as the 1st runner-up in the over 250,000 population category among the worldwide competitors for the Annual Community Policing Competition and Conference organised by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in the USA. Kwai Chung Divisional Commander Ho Yun-sing received the honour at a presentation ceremony in Philadelphia, USA.
To further improve "Project New Dawn" and the co-operation amongst the police, non-government organisations and other government departments, KWTDIST and New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association are jointly implementing a volunteer scheme, under which frontline officers are encouraged to participate in volunteer services for rehabilitated mentally disordered persons. The strengthened link among the three stakeholders would see the effectiveness "Project New Dawn" further enhanced.
