Adapting for Social Good: A Case Study of Identity-based Mentoring Innovations for Ethnic Minority Teenagers in a Hong Kong Residential Hall Community

Abstract

The challenges and difficulties encountered by ethnic minority youth at attempts of integrating into the Chinese-dominated host society has recently become a heated issue in Hong Kong. Various educational institutions and social service providers have been working towards the goal of providing adequate support to the marginalized group. Based on document analysis, participant observation, interviews, and focus group discussions conducted in an all-male residential hall in a local university over a four-month period, the current study looks into the adaptation of the hall's existing identity-based mentoring model for a social service program targeted at ethnic minority teenagers. This paper examines the diverse perspectives on the adaptation by the stakeholders, and discusses both the theoretical and practical concerns underlying the promotion of social innovations in the residential hall community with a long-standing social service tradition. Furthermore, the paper also evaluates the potential of cross-age, identity-based mentoring programs for cultivating cultural literacy among ethnic minority youth in the increasingly multicultural Hong Kong, which is expected to bring long-term effectiveness in the form of experiential learning for acquiring intercultural communicative competence.