Problem Statement
Youths in Hong Kong need support, mentorship, resources and guidance to create social and environmental initiatives, to support the local community. Similarly, our community needs young people to step up and tackle social and environmental issues with the talent and resources present.

Target Group
The immediate group that The Project Clinic works with are youths aged 14 to 30, especially working in collaboration with local schools and institutions.

Proposed Solution
The Project Clinic is an initiative that provides tailored, hands-on support for developing social and environmental projects in Hong Kong. The clinic promotes impactful, long term and sustained projects that are youth driven. The Project Clinic combines the founding values of the Global Shapers community as well as design thinking philosophy in the creation of projects.

Hub Activities
Consultation Sessions to support hands on project development support
Project database to keep track of impact projects in the region
Local workshop as bundle sessions to build up design thinking skills

Short and Long Term Goals
Moving away from traditional education, the aim of the initiative is to develop holistic competences and attributes. Through creating projects with The Project Clinic, students are able to grasp important holistic skills ranging from communication, empathy, critical thinking, creativity, self leadership, entrepreneurship, etc. Through the self agency aspect of the creation of SDG projects, members will develop skills that would be transferable for future careers.

The Project Clinic’s model also makes design thinking more accessible to learn and engage with, by relating to the individual's passions and interests. Design thinking is not only exclusive to design backgrounds but can be applied in a range of fields to foster creativity and make project development more systematic.

In reference to WEF Future of Jobs 2020 document, 5 of the top 15 skills demanded skills by 2025 involves key elements of design thinking and skills engaging with The Project Clinic, including “Analytical thinking and innovation”, “Complex problem-solving”, “Creativity, originality and initiative”, “Leadership and social influence, “Reasoning, problem-solving and ideation”.

The clinic also aims to work with unprivileged communities such as ethnic minorities to also create projects. By encouraging the typically outspoken population of the community, we hope to empower them to also voice out and take action to be represented.

Others areas of impact
Outside of these key impact areas, the projects that are led by students are also interlinked with other WEF impact areas such as protecting the planet, improving health and wellbeing and delivering basic needs. We aim to have projects that have longevity and local impact rather than one off volunteering experiences.

Metrics
Total number of clinic members.
Hours of total number of consultation calls and mentorship.
Total number community events/workshops.
Total number of community members supported from projects.

Collaborators
Support from the Director of Library Services at The University of Hong Kong. The HKU’s Lead for Life group has also provided support to help disseminate the initiative to the student group. An agreement has also reached with their group that students who create projects with The Project Clinic can fulfil the service requirement of their course.

The CEDARS’s general education group has also expressed interest in collaborating as they have pioneered many sustainability events with their community hub garden initiative.

Similarly other groups have also expressed their interest to join our network such as HKU Common Core, Hong Kong Biodiversity Museum, Sau Po Centre on Ageing and Encompass HK.