Project Effectiveness

JC A-Connect: Jockey Club Autism Support Network (JC A-Connect) is the first of its kind in the city, to provide holistic support for children with ASD attending mainstream schools, and their parents. As of now, JC A-Connect has supported 510 mainstream primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong, helping over 60 percent of students with ASD and different educational needs.

Over the six academic years from 2015, JC A-Connect has utilised the “NGO-School Collaboration” approach to deploy the expertise of NGOs in the support of school-based training by providing after-class group training for students with ASD, which help improve the students’ social communication and emotional regulation skills to foster inclusion in campus.

 

HKSAR Government Deployed JC A-Connect Programme
In light of the significant efficacy of the collaborative approach between NGOs and schools, the Education Bureau will integrate the “NGO-School Collaboration” into its “Whole School Approach to Providing Tiered Support for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders” to sustain the services delivered in JC A-Connect, starting from the 2021/22 school year, in order to provide continuous support for both schools and students.

We are honoured that the HKSAR Government has recognised the effectiveness of the JC A-Connect programme and is committed to supporting students with ASD in the long run based on this programme model. JC A-Connect will continue to implement family support services, and provide systematic training courses for parents and assistance to families in need at an early stage. We have also developed an online learning platform and a network of professionals in ASD to maintain and support service development in the field.

 

Benefitting Students, Parents and Teachers
JC A-Connect provides training programmes including training courses, seminars, sharing sessions and workshops, for all teachers and other school personnel. At the same time, professional support and seminars are provided to NGOs participating in the project, in order to strengthen their capabilities to serve and enhance the quality of related services. We also develop resource packages concerning the education of students with ASD with service models and guidelines, resource books, assessment and evaluation tools, and online learning platform, etc. All these help the professionals focus on the needs of students and get more done with less effort.

On the other hand, 5,000 structured training sessions and parent support services were delivered by 18 satellite centres or parent resource centres in different districts to serve over 25,000 parents. With support from cross-sectoral professionals, we established an online learning platform to educate parents and service providers about topics related to ASD. Different stakeholders will be able to better understand the world of people with ASD, and understand that they are just “Same Among The Differences” and ultimately we can build an inclusive society.