Name: Janice Kwong
Title: Assistant Manager, Adoption Services
Years Working at Mother’s Choice: 8
(1) Why did you first decide to go into social work?
I think the seed of “helping the voiceless” was planted in me long before I chose to study Social Work in university. My family encouraged me to engage in different experiences by volunteering during summer vacations. I like helping people, especially those experiencing adversity. The spirit of social work totally echoes my personal belief “to make the invisible visible, the underprivileged privileged, and the devalued valued”.
(2) Why did you first decide to work for Mother’s Choice?
Prior to working at Mother’s Choice, I worked with another non-profit for children and youth where I designed programs and camp-trainings. One day, I attended a job recruitment sharing on adoption services, a field that I did not learned about at university. I decided to take on a new challenge and stepped out of my comfort zone in and sent in my CV, and here I still am eight years later!
(3) What are the things you love best about working at Mother’s Choice?
It’s not difficult to find things to love about Mother’s Choice. The culture here is supportive, encouraging and innovative and allows me to try out new things. The agency has great courage. They truly aim to help vulnerable babies and girls in need. It’s about modeling small and impacting big, so the agency is more focused on the quality of care than only driving big numbers. All of the different services are connected to one another, working closely with each other to provide holistic care for our clients. As a social worker, you know that you’re really working for the clients’ needs; and your service is supported by the agency even if it’s an “out of the box” solution.
(4) Why should a social worker want to work for Mother’s Choice?
Family means love, care, and acceptance. Family means shelter and support. Family means there’s always someone to hear me out. In a way, my team are also my family — we face the good and bad together. My supervisors have always supported me, not only in terms of skills and knowledge, but also emotionally. As a social worker, there are times we face challenges and lots of emotions. Working in Mother’s Choice, with the support and the understanding from the team and supervisors, you will find healthy and positive ways to restore your energy and heart to work with your clients again.