Tai Po District was once an idyllic village town in Hong Kong. After years of rapid development, it has transformed into a modern town with a population of about 300 ,000. To date, it has six public housing estates, over one hundred private housing estates and around 130 villages. Endowed with rich resources, beautiful landscape, renowned places and monuments, Tai Po District is a melting pot of new and traditional culture. On the other hand, Tai Po District has launched and supported various programmes that promote respect and care for the older people living in the District, activities like home visits and house cleansing by the younger generations from schools, feasts for the older people in celebrating Chinese festivals together were organized. With the increasing ageing population in Hong Kong, Tai Po District would adopt a bottom-up and district-based approach to promote the age-friendliness of the District, so as to get the older people involved throughout the Age-friendly Cities and Communities cycle, and encourage them to actively participate and stay connected with the community.

In order to develop Tai Po District into an age-friendly community, Tai Po District Council will serve as a bridge between government, community stakeholders and the public. An “age-friendly community group” which involves the representatives of older people as well as from relevant government departments and non-government organizations would be set up to make suggestions on enhancing the age-friendliness of the District by enhancing the community environment and facilities, as well as promoting public awareness and elderly participation programmes, etc. Different initiatives would be conducted by the District Council through its different Committees according to the eight domains identified by WHO age-friendly city framework.

A three-year action plan of Tai Po District is developed based on the findings of the baseline assessment study which was conducted from July 2015 to January 2016 with the funding of The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) Charities Trust. As part of the action plan, a series of district-based programmes with the funding support of HKJC Charities Trust would be launched in the District by community partners to address areas of concerns in the relevant age-friendly city domains based on its district characteristics. Publicity and public education programmes would also be launched to raise public awareness in making Hong Kong an age-friendly city.

The working group on Elderly Projects and Medical Services under the Social Service Committee of Tai Po District Council would help develop Tai Po District into an age-friendly community, in which regular meetings would be held and representatives from District Council, District Office, Social Welfare Department, relevant government departments, non-government organizations and older people would be invited. Moreover, opinions and suggestions made by the working group would be channelled to different Committees under District Council for follow up. Furthermore, the Committees would set “age-friendly city” as one of the agenda items in their annual year plans.