Founded by the Rt. Rev. Bishop R.O. Hall of the Anglican Church in 1949, St. James’ Settlement began as a club for boys and girls in a temple in Stone Nullah Lane, Wanchai. It was then developed into a six-storey building on Kennedy Road in 1963 to provide diversified services, including children and youth services, elderly services and rehabilitation services. In 1987, the headquarters was opened in Stone Nullah Lane so that the scope of services could be further extended. Our first centre outside Wanchai (named Central and Western District Elderly Community Centre) was established in 1990. Since then, different service centres have been developed and most of them are located along the north coast of Hong Kong Island, from The Belcher’s in Western to Hing Wah Estate in Chai Wan. In recent years, in view of the society’s ever changing needs, we have opened service centres in Kowloon and the New Territories. To date, our 96 service points are in operation across Hong Kong. By the end of September 2023, we have over 1,900 staff members to provide a vast range of high quality services for people of different ages and needs. In the past year, around 2,540 volunteers have helped in different service units.
In 2022-2023, St. James’ Settlement served more than 3.23 million person-times, and our target beneficiaries include children, teenagers, families, the elderly and people with disabilities. We provide a broad spectrum of services ranging from community support to residential care.
At first, the major source of funding support came from donation and the Church. We are then supported by the social welfare subvention. Besides, part of our income resources comes from charity agencies, individual and corporate donors in Hong Kong and overseas. The operation expenditure for the year 2022-2023 is $1.4 billion.