Ling Kar-kan (KK) is a professional town planner who served in the Planning Department for more than thirty years and was the Director of Planning when he retired. Having handled numerous planning studies and development projects, he noticed the challenges faced by the city arising from “double-ageing”, i.e. rapid ageing of the population and residential buildings at the same time. Since taking up the post of Director of the Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation (JCDISI) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) in 2017, he has aspired to address social needs with socially innovative solutions co-created through collaboration with partners from different sectors in the community. The transition to the social innovation field helped him develop a new mindset through working on a new platform with new partners.
Regarding the vision of JCDISI, KK cites its overarching strategy of “participatory social innovation” which aims to enable stakeholders across a broad spectrum to participate in multi-faceted community engagements and cross-sector collaborations.
He observed that many young social innovators are often not tuned in to beneficiaries’ pain points, or are sometimes under-sensitive to market reality and even reluctant to share ideas with others as they worry about copycats. JCDISI’s "Good Seed" programme, therefore, arranges sessions for participants to discuss with beneficiaries and welfare organisations, aiming to open their minds to different opinions, criticisms and challenges. “Social innovation requires collaboration and courage to make things happen. Young social innovators have to step out and meet different stakeholders. I do not expect every social innovation project to succeed but would like to provide students and youths with opportunities of experimentation to trigger the processes of design thinking, team collaboration, effective idea expression and so forth. These will be valuable experiences for their personal growth regardless of their jobs in future.”
- JCDISI, joined by the Institute for Entrepreneurship of PolyU, is responsibe for developing and executing "Good Seed" under SIE Fund's Innovative Programmes. More details about "Good Seed" can be found here.
Profession
otherScope of Services
SI support
social and design researchBeneficiaries
youth and children
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- Good Seed: Multi-dimensional training (SIE Fund Facebook 14/07/2020)
- [Intermediaries] KK Ling: Flexibility and tolerance of failures are the keys (YouTube 27/06/2018)