Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Program in its 10th Year

Cross-Sector Endeavour Continues to Cultivate Corporate Social Responsibility

 

HONG KONG, CHINA – Media
OutReach – 6 July 2020 – Citigroup
Inc. (NYSE: C) – The Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Program (CIP) is celebrating
its 10^th year of providing internship opportunities for local
university business students at local non-profit organizations (NGOs). Since
its launch in 2010, nearly 700 interns have been nurtured through the program.

 

Co-organized
by Citi and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), Citi-HKCSS
Community Intern Program is a first-of-its-kind cross-sector collaboration
between academia, business and the NGO sector. Sponsored by Citi, the program
aims to foster an exchange of knowledge, ideas and expertise between Hong
Kong’s emerging business leaders and local non-profit organizations, through an
array of activities ranging from marketing, event management and fundraising to
day-to-day operations for NGOs. Most importantly, the program enhances the
concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the participating business
university students in Hong Kong.

 

Mr.
Wayne Fong, Head of Corporate Affairs, Citi Hong Kong, said, “This year marks
the 10^th year of our collaborative effort with HKCSS. We are
delighted to have forged cross-sector partnerships for mutual learning and
contribution between local university business students and local non-profit
organizations. Over previous years, the program has served as a stage and a
classroom for resourceful young people to excel and improve their expertise and
ideas, while offering local NGOs more innovative solutions to anticipating
challenges and a chance to build awareness in the sector. Citi has a firm
commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility and strives to enable the
economic growth and progress of different stakeholders in the Hong Kong community.
We hope our future business leaders will carry with them a broadened
understanding of community needs and continue to dedicate themselves to the betterment
of society in their future careers.”

 

Dr.
John Fung, Business Director, The Hong Kong Council of Social Service said, “Without
the strong and continuous support from Citi, this program would not have come
into its 10^th year. Cross-sector partnerships and multiple
beneficiary designs are niches of the program. NGOs have got solid manpower and innovative
marketing support to improve their works. Local university business students
are able to get in touch with different underserved groups and gain in-depth
understanding of the social situation. This internship program offers comprehensive
experiential learning opportunities to enhance the future skills of the youth, preparing
them to be inclusive leaders with a social mindset. Today, I am very happy to have
two alumni, who graduated in 2010 and 2015, here to share their career successes
with attribution to early social exposure through the program. “

 

This
year, 80 business students will do internships at 40 local NGOs during July and
August. The CIP interns will provide strategic and operational assistance to
their assigned NGOs in areas including but not limited to network building,
brand-building, fundraising, social enterprise business, operations and
community service support. To enhance their understanding and social mindset, the
interns will receive 20 hours of comprehensive coaching on social service
development in Hong Kong, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and
cross-sector collaborations prior to the start of their internships. Some participating
non-profit organizations provide services to a wide range of stakeholders,
including low-income groups, the elderly, students with special needs, and
persons with disabilities, while others promote nature conservation.

Photos:

1. (first row second and
   third from left) Mr. Wayne Fong, Head of Corporate Affairs, Citi Hong Kong
   and Dr. John Fung, Business Director of the Hong Kong Council of Social
   Service (HKCSS) pictured with the 80 interns at the induction event for the
   Citi-HKCSS Community Intern Program 2020.
2. 30 interns joined a
   workshop to learn the concepts of “Upcycling” and “Making by Doing” at a
   social innovation project called UpCycling Plus located at Hung Shui Kiu,
   Tuen Mun.

About Citi

Citi,
the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and
does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides
consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of
financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit,
corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services,
and wealth management.

 

Additional
information may be found at www.citigroup.com | Twitter: @Citi | YouTube: www.youtube.com/citi
| Blog: http://new.citi.com
| Facebook: www.facebook.com/citi
| LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/citi

About HKCSS

The
HKCSS is an umbrella organisation of 480 agency members that provide over 90%
of the social welfare services in Hong Kong. HKCSS launched the Caring Company
Scheme to build a cohesive society by promoting strategic partnership among
business and social service partners and inspiring corporate social
responsibility through caring for the community, employees and the environment.
HKCSS puts much effort into building capacity for social enterprises through
the Social Enterprise Business Centre (SEBC) to advance social entrepreneurship
and mobilize social innovation.

 

Additional information may be found at www.hkcss.org.hk
| Facebook: www.facebook.com/hkcssfans