We are dedicated to making voices of the social service users heard by service providers and the community at large. We aim to facilitate user participation in social service organizations as well as private enterprises, so that collaborative decision-making with trust and mutuality can achieve continuous quality improvement and build innovations for service.
Collaboration breeds innovation
Neglected voices can be heard
Divergent views can converge
To partner with users
To build a culture of PARTICIPATION
To transform experience into knowledge
To make consensus possible
As a hub where experiential knowledge integrates with professional knowledge, our team includes professionals from different disciplines as well as social service users.
Founder and Chairperson
Being a social worker and social service manager for twenty years before starting my academic career, I care about how voices of the service users can be heard and incorporated in effective service planning. In the past decade, I research on user participation in the management of social services, and teach social service management to both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I also work closely with service users and practitioners in local social service organizations through participatory action research projects to identify ways for supporting collaborative decision-making with the service users.
Founder and Vice-Chairperson
A registered social worker currently teaching in the Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. My research and advocacy work focuses on people with disabilities. Believing strongly in the power of "participation" and "empowerment", I have been working with individuals with disabilities and their caregivers since the 1990s. I strive to actualize the participatory principles in my works, and have witnessed first-hand how service users grow and bring positive gains to services and policies through their participation.
The 1992 film “City of Joy” highlights three possible courses of action we may take in the face of social mishaps: escape, observe or participate. I am not the sort of person who would escape, pretending that things are well when they are not. Neither am I able to hold myself back and be a mere observer. I choose to participate, to dive into the experience, and try to make changes. What is your choice?
Mr. YIP Pang Wai (Secretary), Outstanding Third Age Citizens Awardee
Mr. James Wing Yee LEUNG (Treasurer), Experienced Registered Social Worker
Mr. Billy Shu Shing MAN, Founder of Managing Consultant Company
Mr. Jason Ka Leung HO, Registered Social Worker
Mr. Karley Ka Hai NG, Artistic Director of Theatre
Mr. Antonio TSUI, Barrister
Mr. Toby Kin Keung YIP, Registered Social Worker
Ms. Ophelia Chiu Ling CHAN
Mr. Antony K. PANG
Mr. Edwin LEUNG
We organize training courses and workshops to social service practitioners and service users on inspiring perspective and practice model that we developed from past research on user participation. We employ an experiential approach with follow-up guidance to assist the participants handle problems in their user participation practices, and enable innovative problem-solving through partnership with the service users.
Social Impact
Promoting participatory decision-making
By providing concrete methods of participation and training, IUP encourages and supports the social service sector to involve more stakeholders in their decision-making process.
Support to the social service sector
While many social service practitioners believe in the principle of person-centered, they have been facing difficult challenges in their everyday service reality. IUP will provide third-party support for them to tackle the challenges on knowledge and skills.