My Leadership-in-Action project, titled Developing Agewhale’s Charitable Initiative: Bridging the Caregiver Resources Gap Through Strategic Communication and Legal Infrastructure, is designed to address the lack of accessible, coordinated support for family caregivers and elderly persons in Hong Kong. Partnering with Agewhale, a social enterprise focused on elderly care and caregiver support, I will contribute to a new charitable initiative that strengthens both community resources and organizational capacity.
The central goal of this project is to help close a critical information and support gap faced by caregivers. At present, many family caregivers lack centralized and easy-to-understand information on mental health support, workplace accommodations, legal rights, and institutional services, which can lead to stress, isolation, and poorer care outcomes. This issue also has a gender dimension, since caregiving work is predominantly carried out by women, making caregiver support closely connected to both well-being and gender equality. For this reason, the project aligns primarily with SDG 3, Good Health and Well-being, and secondarily with SDG 5, Gender Equality.
To achieve this overall purpose, I have set three main objectives. First, I aim to author and publish 12 to 15 evidence-based blog articles that position Agewhale as a trusted source on caregiver support, elderly rights, workplace accommodations, mental health, and resource navigation. This objective will allow me to turn research into practical public communication and make complex information more accessible to caregivers and families. Second, I aim to establish formal pro bono partnerships with two to three reputable law firms and support the preparation of legal documentation required for charity registration, including governance and registration materials. This will help provide Agewhale with a stronger legal and institutional foundation for long-term service development. Third, I will develop a comprehensive integrated resource framework of around 12,000 to 15,000 words that brings together caregiver rights information, mental health resources, workplace support mechanisms, legal pathways, and Agewhale’s own service offerings into one strategic document.
The expected outcomes of the project are both practical and long-term. In the short term, the project should produce a clear content strategy, a stronger digital presence for Agewhale, a structured repository of caregiver resources, and the legal groundwork for the new charitable initiative. In the longer term, it should help position Agewhale as a thought leader in the caregiving space and create systems that can continue beyond my placement period. These outcomes will be measured through indicators such as the number of articles published, readership and engagement data, stakeholder feedback, completion of legal documentation, successful law firm partnerships, and user feedback on the clarity and accessibility of the resources produced.
This LiA project is also an important leadership development opportunity for me. Through leading brainstorming sessions, coordinating with Agewhale staff, synthesizing stakeholder input, and building partnerships without formal authority, I will strengthen my skills as a critical and creative thinker, effective communicator, and resilient project leader. Overall, I expect this project to create real social value while helping me grow into a leader who can connect research, communication, and action in service of vulnerable communities.