Conference Programme

Symposium (in Cantonese)

In Dialogue with Youth's Loneliness and Boredom: Experience during the COVID Era
by Caritas, The Boys' & Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong and The University of Hong Kong

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Scientific data sharing on boredom - The University of Hong Kong

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Youth-led program in boredom - the mindful taster for youth - Caritas

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Youth-led program in boredom - human-sized monopoly - Caritas

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Video sharing - funfair program in LevelMind@JC - Caritas

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Scientific data sharing on loneliness - The University of Hong Kong

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Video sharing - youth narration on loneliness - Caritas

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Boredom and loneliness: the role of social worker in community work of youth mental health - The Boys' & Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong & Caritas

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Changing process: transformation story - The Boys' & Girls' Clubs Association of Hong Kong

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Sasa - Sharing loneliness in a non-judgmental and curious way
Sasa has joined an expressive art group organized by our center and the non-judgmental and curious dialogues created in the group has allowed her to gain new perspectives on her own loneliness.

The group members consisted of different people from different backgrounds with different stories. The group has provided a platform for these different people to share their feelings. She felt relieved knowing that she was not alone in feeling lonely, and she had a sense of togetherness in the group.

In the group, Sasa felt that the anonymous way of dialogues with the use of memo notes to exchange ideas has allowed her to express her ideas more freely, without worry of being judged or criticized. Also, to her the use of art as a symbolic way of expression created some distance, and thus gave her more space and possibilities to explore and express her feelings of loneliness, while not feeling too exposed. Because of such ways of communications, she felt safe to express herself openly in the group and able to understand her loneliness better.

Instead of focusing on solutions of how to solve loneliness, like the way our society approaches problems, the group created a safe space to express, exchange and resonate on thoughts and feelings about loneliness with a non-judgmental and curious manner. Such open dialogues allowed her to see the different faces and manifestations of loneliness. It gave her a chance to see her loneliness from different perspectives, to have much reflection on the different possibilities in life and to understand herself better.

Ka Yan - To be alone, or not to be alone
Ka Yan has created this artwork to express her long-standing sense of loneliness arising from her ambivalence in interpersonal relationship. On one hand, she was not confident and very sensitive to judgement by others, thus she felt more at ease when hiding in the comfort zone of being alone and not opening up herself to others. She was afraid to reach out and had no friends. On the other hand, deep down she also yearned for companions who would be willing to spend time to understand her. Such ambivalence has resulted in a strong and chronic sense of loneliness.

The creation process of this artwork itself was also a manifestation of her ambivalence. On one hand, she would like to share her inner feelings of loneliness through the artwork. On the other hand, she was unwilling to share her ideas with other group members in the creation process. Also she chose to use some rather indirect ways of expression in the artwork and did not expect much attention on her artwork, as she was fear of exposing herself too much and receiving negative judgment.

To her pleasant surprise, she received much encouraging feedback on her artwork. She was very touched that even though she used very indirect way of expression (even involved decoding of Morse code), people were willing to spend time to try to understand her. She also felt reassured that some people resonated with her ambivalent and lonely feelings and she felt that these people somehow were her companions. She was especially moved by her mother’s feedback, expressing support for Ka Yan to pursue her dream, which was very different from her mother’s usual style of communication. She was grateful such precious exchange with different people were made possible through this artwork, and she enjoyed the feeling of being understood.

All these were novel and very encouraging experiences for her, and have given her confidence to try to express herself more openly in the future and hopefully be able to build more positive social relationships. The encouragement she received also gave her much motivation to continue to pursue her dream.
  
Queenie - The blossom of strength within our vulnerabilities
 Everyone has their own vulnerabilities. However, in the past Queenie used to have much self-invalidation of her own vulnerabilities. She viewed her vulnerabilities as signs of weakness, and used to hide her vulnerabilities from others, thus giving rise to sense of loneliness.

In a conversation with our social worker, she opened up herself to talk about her vulnerabilities. The feedback from the social worker touched her deeply and she came to a new realization that it was actually an act of enormous courage to face her past wounds and express her vulnerabilities. Instead of hiding her vulnerabilities and pushing herself to improve, she realized that embracing her vulnerabilities and validating her authentic self would be an important first step for positive change.

This self-discovery journey has inspired her to create this artwork. In the painting, she used a baby, which is in the most vulnerable stage of life, to symbolize a person’s vulnerable inner self. It expressed the idea that embracing our vulnerabilities is not a sign of weakness but a manifestation of strength.
These experiences continued to be very empowering for her when faced with difficulties in daily life. “When I am overwhelmed with challenging situations, I now accept myself more. I don’t want to compare myself with others anymore”, she said. Instead of criticizing herself, she felt more at ease by embracing her vulnerabilities with openness, thus transforming her self-invalidation into self-compassion.
She also would like to encourage others to be aware of their aversion towards their vulnerabilities, to embrace their vulnerabilities with love and to let their strength blooms in the process.

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Loneliness busking sharing“Music - Caritas

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Synopsis

Loneliness and boredom are every day’s life experiences. This symposium will present data on loneliness (n = 778) and boredom among youths (n = 781) in Hong Kong. The presentation will cover the relationship of demographic profiles and psychosocial factors with loneliness and boredom among the youth surveyed. The session will feature local youths’ narration of boredom and loneliness. LevelMind@JC exemplifies the value of youth-led, youth participation and youth empowerment in a community youth project. Our hub youth will share the design of the programs “Human-sized Monopoly” and “Mindfulness Taster for youth” with the goal of educating other youngsters about the relationship between self, boredom, and mental health.