A Grand Gathering Employers Reception

The staff and members of  "Phoenix Clubhouse" had been looking forward to November 6, 2003 eagerly for a long time. It was our "Employers Reception" where we showed our appreciation to our benefactors.  I am sure everyone knows about the "Transitional Employment Placement" service in the clubhouse.  Through the TEP program, members are given employment for a certain period of time in enterprises that act as our "partners".  Besides showing our gratitude to these employers, we also hope to promote the TEP program, hence obtaining more TEP positions. We were determined to make this reception a success.

Ms. Lorette and Mr. Raymond Wong were the first ones to arrive. Ms. Lorette is the volunteer who taught our members how to draw "true-to-live" pictures on our homemade birthday cards. Mr. Wong is a member of "Friends of Phoenix Clubhouse".  Almost immediately afterwards came Ms. Mary Chu, Eva's boss.  To us, it was a "celebrities night"!  Representatives from different enterprises that worked with us arrived one by one. Professor Lieh-Mak, the head of the HKU Psychiatric department, and the person who supported the establishment of Phoenix Clubhouse, also graced us with her presence.

It was important that we all stood by to make sure that every guest felt completely at home. That, of course depended on the full co-operation of everyone in the clubhouse. When everything was ready, the reception began. Mimi was the master of ceremony. She was calm and collected. Eli, Kenneth, Ivy, Fong-fong and Mimi herself shared with the audience their experiences with transitional employment. They were all well prepared and their words were touching, so the employers understood that their acceptance of us gained a great deal of appreciation from us. We hope that they will continue to employ our members to work in their organizations, thus giving us confidence to return to work and to reintegrate into society.

After the Employers' Reception, we received a lot of feedback in our e-mail:

 Yakult