About Next Chapters
Hong Kong is a temporary home to more than 360,000 individuals from vulnerable communities, including foreign domestic helpers, sex workers and migrant workers. An overwhelming majority of them are female. Many lack the opportunities for professional development or a resource providing personal growth, such as parenting workshops and reintegration into their communities. Others simply need a support system to help solve their problems away from home.
That's where we step in.
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Next Chapters offers a range of educational training sessions that work on the professional skills and personal development capabilities most pertinent to individuals from vulnerable communities. In addition, we tailor-make programs to address problems on an individual basis that are outside of the spectrum of the workshops. Finally, we join hands with other like-minded organizations to collectively solve issues with the communities they represent and empower the marginalized.
We believe in equal opportunity, bridging social divides, and equipping the underprivileged with the life skills and support to reach their full potential – one individual at a time.
Mission
To equip individuals from vulnerable communities with the life skills and professional skills for them to thrive in an unfamiliar and competitive environment.
Vision
To reduce social inequality in Hong Kong
by ensuring that marginalized individuals stand on equal footing and are able to
fulfill their greatest potential.
Our Founder
Next Chapters’ founder, Christina (Christy) Themar, has accumulated over two decades of experience in working with individuals from distinct vulnerable communities. As a United States Peace Corps volunteer in Jordan, Christy crafted education programs and taught English to over 40 girls before having to evacuate in the midst of the trying period of 9/11. She spent two years in rural Mongolia developing classroom activities and designing sustainability initiatives in a harsh and barren environment, where resourcefulness really mattered. There, she secured funding from the United States Department of Agriculture for the implementation of an alternative fuel initiative to prevent desertification of the Gobi Desert, and built an English library at a local school for students of varying reading abilities.
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Since then, she has worked across globally accredited organizations such as the Narada Foundation, The United Nations Industrial Development Organization and The Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots Program. Christy’s practical experiences are backed up by solid theoretical and academic prowess, having been awarded Best Master’s Thesis on Irregular Migration in Italy, where she examined some of Italy’s increasingly controversial immigration policies. This project acted as a gateway for building a comprehensive understanding of migrant issues in Hong Kong.
“We don’t have many trainers as experienced as Christy in conducting classes. She created a synergetic and interactive learning environment.”
Carmen Lam
Director of Community Education and Outreach, PathFinders
Now, Christy brings forth her extensive devotion and leadership to crafting educational workshops and 1-on-1 programs catered toward individuals from vulnerable communities. In designing these programs, she draws upon her own firsthand experiences of being submerged in culturally diverse communities and harsh conditions around the world. Since the inception of Next Chapters in 2016, Christy has worked intimately with the Philippine Consulate General and the Overseas Workers Welfare Association to touch the lives of hundreds of migrant workers and continues to do so daily with other like-minded organizations to address the communities they represent.
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Christy is an ICF ACC certified coach and holds a Master's in Public Administration in International Development from Tsinghua University, China, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. She is also certified for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (CTEFL) and is conversant in six languages.
“Wonderful trainer. Very knowledgeable and sharp. Thank you for the opportunity. Looking forward to another training.”
- Haylee D.
Participant of Child Care training,
Philippine Overseas Labor Office
“Christy is a professional leader in this aspect. I hope to see her in another presentation as she is influential to others.”
- Teen’s Key participant on
Workplace Communication
“I enjoyed the training and I never got bored during the training. It’s very helpful. All the information can be adapted to my current situation. Thank you and God Bless.”