JCI Island History

Established in 1966, JCI Island (港島青年商會) has always been one of the active chapters of the JCI Hong Kong. JCI Island (港島青年商會) has pioneered many large scale projects in various spheres of commission activities towards the betterment of community of Hong Kong and towards the elevation of knowledge and experience of members. Some innovative projects are listed below.

In short, we

were established and incorporated in 1966;
are affiliated with the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong, the former Hong Kong Junior Chamber who was established in 1950;
are the 3rd longest in history out of 21 JC Chapters in Hong Kong;
are an All-Male, English-Speaking Chapter;
are about 60 active memberships in 3 different categories, 70+ including all active Past Presidents;
focus to provide young people between age 18-40 with opportunities in polishing leadership skills, building social responsibility, motivating entrepreneurship and encouraging fellowship.

1970s

In 1974 Island built the first Solar Heating System in Wu Kai Sha Youth Centre. This project has brought an Award of Excellence - the 'Scotland Aberdeen Award' at Oakland JCI Congress to the Hong Kong Jaycees, the first ever won at an international level.

In 1974 and 1975, the musical event - 'Pop/Folk' won tremendous success in providing entertainment in the form of pop and folk songs to some 20,000 youths and adults at the Hong Kong Government Stadium. Apart from the great publicity received and extensive involvement of members throughout the project, it has raised funds which was sufficient to support our community projects for the whole year. Since then in the Pop/Folk 76, 77, 79, '80 & '81 brought pride and courage to the chapter and has become an annual fund-raising project. It symbolises the creativity and dynamism of the Islanders.

The Neighbourhood Development Campaign in 1975 and 1976 have aroused the public, in particular the “Kai Fongs”, to keep eyes on their surroundings and the need to promote neighbourhood friendship.

In 1976, the launching of the Youth Congress of Hong Kong has given an unique opportunity to students to voice themselves on social problems. The Congress has gained concrete supports from Education Department, teachers, educationists and higher forms students.

It was held again in 2001 and 2004 respectively.

The construction of the Venture Park for the St. Christopher's Home has provided the under-privileges children and orphans a recreational physical & intellectual training playground, this project was first taken place in 1977 and it was followed by an maintenance program in 1978. In 1977 and 1978, the 'Young Executive Convention' did successfully offer a great deal of training and experience in the business and management fields.

In the year 1978, there were even more tasks completed, the projects accomplished including the "Two-Week Programme for Youth Workers & Families" which produced a nearly three month duration of recreation and cultural education to the workers and their kin; the "1978 Hong Kong Model Teenagers Selection" gave much recognition and encouragement to the teens of 13-19 years old; the "Job Opportunities for the Deaf" had made good appeal and introduction for the deaf sector; and the "Education Survey on Selected Rural Countryside" studied into the needs of country education.

In 1979, Island sent a party of delegates to visit our sister chapter, Taipei Jaycees, in exchanging views and ideas on projects. During our visit, Taipei Jaycees sponsored us a project on promotion of children's literature in Hong Kong. We also held a series of seminars on various aspects. In summer of 1979, Island launched a large scale community project 'Lantau Health Care Project' which was a 3-day project held at Mui Wo, Lantau Island - an outlying island of Hong Kong. This project was carried out in a form of exhibition, film show, free medical check-up, free medical counselling and consultation, dental care and educational seminars for the eight villages' residents on the island. In assisting us to carry out the medical check-up was a team of doctors, dentists, pharmacists and nurses. Later in the year, there was a theme project - 'Toys from Children with Love' which has brought love to share amongst 20,000 to 30,000 children. This project had won a JCI Presidential Honour Award for Programs.

1980s

In 1980, the prevailing energy crisis has prompted Island to organise a label design competition on energy conservation for tomorrow. The aims are to provide the youths an opportunity to develop their artistic & creative potentials and, at the same time, educate the public the awareness of energy conservation

In 1981, the 'Talents Unlimited Game Contest' aiming to promote mutual understandings between disabled persons and abled bodies has unprecedentedly managed to set up a scholarship fund in the name of 'Shell/Island Jaycees Scholarship for the disabled students' and in years thereafter 10 disabled students would be nominated to receive the scholarship during the yearly award presentation ceremony. This scholarship is in its 24th year in 2005 and 30 students would be awarded in 3 categories. In the same year, the YA project, 'Youth Conference of Hong Kong '81’ was successfully organised during which series of seminars and meetings were held to discuss and exchange views on topics surrounding the problems facing by young people. Useful opinions and comments delivered in the conference were recorded and complied into a report and which have been distributed to parties concerned for reference.

In 1982 and 1983, Island can be said to be a bit dormant and showed signs of languish. However, in 1984, the organization began to regain its strength and returned to its resurgent spirit as before. In that year, a Sisterhood pact was signed with Bukit Mertajam Jaycees of Malaysia. Furthermore, the Computer Education: Education, Seminar and Software Contest 1984 was held to illustrate its application in teaching and learning apart from commercial usages and has gained good response from school students in particular, the software contest. Coupled with this is the 'Fight Youth Crime Campaign 1984' which attempted to probe the problem of drug abuse and triad activities looming in schools.

Coming to 1985 & 1986, with more new members joining the chapter, the Board have been able to diversify its human resources to cater more qualitative projects. In 1986, while celebrating the 20th anniversary, the chapter is organising a 'Hong Kong 20 years Economy' project with a view of reviewing significant changes taken place in Hong Kong over the past 20 years. Through this occasion, the chapter anticipates to promote and cultivate a sense of belongings among the public, to encourage young people to be more active in participating community oriented services and most important of all, to develop the true spirit of Jaycees among the Jaycees circle.

In 1987, the "Vietnamese Refugees Camp Fun Day" provided entertainment, care & friendship to the unfortunate refugees. In 1988, Island Jaycees won the Leadership Development Award in JCI Conference by the "Public Speaking Training School" and the "Leadership-In Action Camp" was also awarded a Certificate of Merit. In 1989, Island Jaycees expanded the "Good Children Award" project to cover the almost all districts of Hong Kong Island. This is the 2nd year of the project which met with great success last year. More than 30,000 school children in Eastern District, Island, participated in the award which encourages them learning to be good children.

1990s

In the early 90s, we organised a number of successful projects such as “Meaningful and Fruitful Life” in which selected outstanding aged people having a familiarisation visit to the old-age community in Taiwan, “Bad Debt Collection Seminar” and “ISO 9000 Philosophy and Practice Seminar” for young professional, and “Economic Study Tour to Xiamen” which was co-organised with Taipei Jaycees to explore the economic development among P.R.C., Taiwan and Hong Kong. In 1994 and 1995, apart from our successful “Youth Photo Contest” which prompted environmental awareness and provided opportunities for cultural exchange amongst the youngsters between Hong Kong and Sendai Junior Chamber of Commerce at Japan, we also organised “China-Hong Kong Taxation Seminar” which aroused small-scale entrepreneurs to have an in-depth knowledge for their business establishments. Moreover, many monthly fellowship gatherings have been organised to develop the sense of belonging among Islanders.

With the successful hosting the National Convention in 1999, a new generation have already been grew up as the new wave and continue our playboy culture. Many meaningful projects were held and a number of awards from JCI Hong Kong were received.

2000 onwards

The Asian IT Venture Capital Forum was held in 2000 where we hosted a business plan competition opened worldwide for technology incubation, discovered by lots of genius all over the world.

The 9-week celebration in 2001 for our 35th Anniversary marked another milestone for Island JC. It showed our commitment and creativity in JC life and this special celebration was awarded by JCI Hong Kong a Special Project Award for our outstanding performance.

In 2005, we are hosting the National Convention again, it will also become a prelude to our 40th Anniversary Celebration upcoming in 2006!

In 2007, we have started to enforce the “No Shark Fins” rule during our gathering events which is the first chapter in JCIHK to do this, a small part in our efforts in achieving goal number 7 of United Nation Millennium Development Goals.

2009 United Arab Emirates Cultural Day which introduced culture of Middle East and business environment of United Arab Emirates to Hong Kong people.

2009 Grand Stage for Small Business (小企業大舞台) provided a platform for small business to showcase their products and services.

In 2009, we also conducted a research in Rehabilitation Employment, we cooperate with Fun Hong Society, the Chinese Manufacturers Association of Hong Kong and the City University of Hong Kong to study employers concerns on hiring rehabilitated people and provide suggestion to promote rehabilitation employment.

2014 O! Love Tour is to provide opportunity for the young volunteers to learn how to take care of the elderly in Hong Kong and to serve the community. 2014 O! Love Tour was awarded the Best World Peace Project in 49th National Convention of Hong Kong and entered the final of Best Omoiyari Award in 2014 World Congress.

After all, with the positive attitude of all members for better leadership skills through community activities, and for furthering individual personality through community involvement, JCI Island (港島青年商會) is always one of the best chapters of the JCI Hong Kong, as well as the Junior Chamber International.