Urban community in China: service, participation and development

With the rapid urbanisation and population growth in the cities, the People's Republic of China has recognised the importance of community development based on an ever-increasing demand for social services. In 1994, the Chinese government adopted community service as an alternative way of providing the supplemental safety net in urban areas. Along with this top-down approach, resident-initiated activities, participation and grassroots organisations at the community level are growing at an incredible pace. Using a case study, this study explores the context and aspects of community services, participation and community development in a Chinese urban community. Results indicate that China's reformed market economy and welfare system presses ordinary urban people to reconnect to the local community to ensure welfare security and quality of life. Community participation in China has rediscovered the path of community development and re-interpreted the top-down and bottom-up approaches in the context of community services.     

The complexities of cultural support planning for Indigenous children in and leaving out‐of‐home care: the views of service providers in Victoria,Australia

Indigenous children and young people are over‐represented at all stages of the Australian child protection system. Policy and legislative initiatives exist in the state of Victoria, Australia aiming to support the connection between Indigenous children and young people in state care and their culture and community. This exploratory research involved focus group consultations with seven child and family welfare agencies to investigate the impacts, barriers, benefits and limitations of cultural support planning for Indigenous young people in, and leaving care in, Victoria. Findings indicated that cultural planning was of value when it could be completed. However, various shortcomings of current systems were identified including limited resourcing of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to generate plans and provide direct and secondary consultation services to implement plans, difficulty gathering information for plans and some Indigenous young people expressing disinterest in connecting to their culture and community. Complexities in the relationships between the Indigenous and non‐Indigenous agencies that aimed to support Indigenous young people in care were also acknowledged. Participants identified a number of strategies to improve outcomes, such as facilitating better relationships between agencies, promoting opportunities for ongoing cultural training for staff in mainstream agencies and improving the resourcing of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations to deliver planning and to support cultural connections.     

Enhancing Social Support for Migrant Families: A Case Study of Community Services in a Shanghai Urban Village and Implications for Intervention

Recent years have witnessed the growing emphasis of the Chinese central government to develop community services as a method of building communities and strengthening social solidarity. With the increased involvement of multi‐generation households in China's internal rural‐to‐urban migration, however, little is known about what community services are available for migrant families. Nor do we know much about how such services can enhance social support for migrants, which is crucial for their psychological well‐being in managing the ongoing challenges that arise from migration and further integration into cities. This article presents a case study conducted in Shanghai where social services are emerging in a few urban villages. We begin with a brief background on China's rural‐to‐urban migration and the emergence of urban villages, followed by a discussion of community services and social support for Chinese migrant families. We then document existing services in an urban village to explore how they can influence migrant families' social support. Drawing on the perspective of service providers, we highlight the effects social work interventions can have on improving social support for migrant families. Finally, we propose an intervention framework based on multi‐dimensions of social support, emphasizing an integration of formal and informal social support through community services for migrant populations.     

Factors Impacting Market Occupancy of Non‐profit Human Service Organizations in the Public Social Service Market: Focused on an Individual Level

This study aims to experientially verify which factors of non‐profit human service organizations affect market sharing activities in the public social service market. Due to market‐oriented government policies, non‐profit human service organizations, which used to enjoy stable financial resources, are now placed in a competitive position to provide their services. It is necessary to find out which organizational factors give a competitive advantage to various service providers in competition, including profit organizations, and apply them to the management and operation of non‐profit human service organizations. This is how this study started. Independent variables were organizational characteristics (organization age, total budget, number of employees), externally oriented culture (development culture, rational culture), and organizational structure (centralization, formalization), while dependent variables were the number of vouchers and total profits. Data was collected from 35 community welfare centers, rehabilitation centers, and senior centers (163 respondents) in Busan, Korea. Multiple regression analysis was conducted for data analysis. As a result of the analysis, the number of vouchers was found to be affected by development culture (+) and formalization (?), and total profit from voucher business was determined by organization age (?), total budget (+), and number of employees (+). Based on the results, this study suggests that non‐profit human service organizations should have an externally oriented culture and a flexible organization system to hold more market share in the public social service market.     

Education and employment opportunities among staff in Aboriginal family service agencies

The purpose of the study was to describe ways that successful culture‐based Aboriginal preventive family service agencies offer employment and education opportunities for staff. Staff in three inner‐city, culture‐based Aboriginal family agencies were asked about their employment and educational opportunities. Forty‐four individuals were asked the question: ‘what employment and education opportunities have you had while in this job?’ A total of 81 unique responses were received. Participants grouped the responses into eight themes including: planning for services, promotion within the agency, specific skill development, enhanced self‐confidence, cultural awareness, teaching others, workshops as well as certified training. Differences between the experiences of study participants and the existing literature indicate that practices within culture‐based Aboriginal family agencies are distinct in relation to funding, staff mobility, strengths‐base, practical training and cultural knowledge, and that these should be understood and recognized formally in funding decisions and in future research.     

The public problem of ‘Aboriginal gambling‘: winning the struggle for an urban space

Gambling by Aboriginal people is increasingly identified as a significant public problem in Australia, eliciting responses mainly concerned with measurement and harm minimisation. We adopt the utilitarian philosophy of John Dewey to critically examine the way this ‘problem’ is socially constructed. We recast our roles as pragmatic researcher‐activists in the ongoing struggle to have Aboriginal practices taken seriously We draw particularly on the work of a group of senior Yolnu Aboriginal consultants and re‐present their story of gambling alongside other research on the Aboriginal use of urban gambling spaces. This helps us develop a nuanced explication of the public problem, one that challenges existing discourses and proposed solutions. We identify an Aboriginal space being produced within existing casinos which is only supported reactively by government and casino owners, and met with anxiety by community service providers. We propose the radical idea of Aboriginal urban gambling venues as indicators of what is needed for a successful, state‐supported, socially inclusionary and non‐exploitative space for Aboriginal people, and what obstacles may stand in the way of achieving this. Through this process, we assess how, as participant researchers, we can help to reformulate of the public problem in a way that is more closely aligned to Aboriginal needs and aspirations.     

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment policy and Welfare to Work: The Community Development Programme and the need for new narratives,new alliances and new institutions

The way Australian federal governments have approached Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment and welfare policy over the last two decades has been a paradigmatic example of what not to do in policymaking. In the absence of effective engagement or consultation, a series of decisions under Coalition and Australian Labor Party governments have had a range of negative consequences for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These changes – centred around the closure of the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme and implementation of the Community Development Programme (CDP) – have resulted in increased unemployment, inadequate support for job creation, a dramatic over‐application of income penalties to social security recipients and reduced capacity in many community organisations. This article argues that these outcomes constitute policy failure, especially given that genuine engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people could have prevented many of these consequences. It then turns to an exploration of three ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are responding to such policy failure: through promotion of new narratives, new alliances, and new institutions. The study concludes that while we should avoid “specious hope”, there is room for optimism in a renewed push for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sovereignty.     

Putting the ‘public’ into public service delivery for social welfare in South Africa

Mubangizi BC, Gray M. Putting the ‘public’ into public service delivery for social welfare in South Africa Int J Soc Welfare 2011: 20: 212–219 © 2010 The Author(s), International Journal of Social Welfare © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of SocialWelfare. The privatisation of some essential services in South Africa has raised severe difficulties for those for whom the idea of fees for services is quite foreign and who, in any case, cannot afford to pay for services. The government has developed several initiatives to educate people about the need to pay for services provided by local government, the largest of which was the Masakhane fees‐for‐services campaign. This article describes two recent initiatives that seek to engage local citizen participation, namely, Integrated Development Plans and izimbizo (or traditional forums). These are examined along with the challenges faced by local government in promoting citizenship participation in service delivery within a decentralised system of governance. The article concludes with some recommendations on how citizen participation can be enhanced so as to make the ‘public’ visible in public service delivery and thus improve social welfare services.     

Practice Evaluation of Community Initiatives for Social Service Delivery in a Deprived Neighborhood in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Improving social service in local communities is a complex undertaking. Over the past few decades, the performance and sustainability of community initiatives have been questioned, while such factors as a lack of funding, insufficient community involvement, unsatisfactory community service, and lack of awareness of the impact of community initiatives have restricted community development. From a case study of community operations in Scotland, this article provides insights into how social service delivery is organized in the absence of public capital. This study utilized data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with a sample of 76 participants from a deprived area in Scotland, including community management team members (n = 6), local residents (n = 52) and community partners (n = 18). The findings illustrated how participants of all ages, local organizations, policy makers, funders and media came together to create a cohesive and responsive community environment. Residents' needs and funders' demands were identified. Results further revealed that a Community Partnership Mechanism helped strengthen the social service network and create flexible social services. Service benefits included improved resident wellbeing in the context of less government intervention. Future implications include suggestions for government and other stakeholders involved in community reform to focus on service recipient skill building and tracking changes between the indicators and service provision.     

Trust, risk and control within an indigenous–non-indigenous social service partnership

Partnerships between organisations are seen as one of the building blocks of the 'third way' approach to welfare provision in both Europe and New Zealand. While there is much discussion on building social capital and partnership working, such partnerships are usually perceived as being between government and community or private organisations. There is a gap in the literature in two specific areas: partnerships formed between two community-based social service organisations and partnerships formed between indigenous, or immigrant peoples, and non-indigenous organisations. This article explores such a partnership – that between the Ngai Tahu Maori Law Centre (an indigenous organisation) and the Dunedin Community Law Centre (a non-indigenous organisation). The article analyses this relationship and strategies employed by both organisations to develop trust, diminish risk and equalise control. Lastly, the article suggests that the model of interaction articulated here could be promulgated to other sites within the social services in New Zealand and the Americas, and within the European context.     

The Role of Aboriginal Medical Services

The research reported in this article evaluates a social psychological model predicting preferences of black patients for alternative medical facilities in Townsville. Results show that proximity, security, experience, assimilation, and seriousness of illness all contribute to a preference for either the Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service or the white administered out-patient service of the General Hospital. The hospital sample is characterized by an active preference for integration, whereas patients attending the Aborignal and Islander Community Health Service do so because of the services provided and socio-emotional support. The study also shows that a substantial number of black patients do not attend any medical facility, supporting the need for an active community organized program of health services.     

过渡治理情境下的中国社会服务困境:基于Z市社会工作服务的研究

社会工作近十年来在创新社会治理的推动下发展迅速。本文将重点关注于社会服务组织的服务供给过程及其导致的社会服务困境。通过对治理情境的拓展分析,引入过渡治理情境概念,分析我国社会服务供给。在此情境下,本文以Z市家庭综合服务中心为例,围绕自由裁量权这一概念讨论社会服务组织的服务供给策略及其所导致的服务困境。在过渡治理情境中,消极的自由裁量权与社会工作的半专业化发展结合在一起,社会服务组织选择了“活动化”和“指标化”的服务供给,令社会服务处于创新和碎片化之间,而导致社会服务陷入困境。社会服务困境根源的解决在于建立合作的治理情境、强化本土化社工专业力量以及充分发挥第三方的社会服务供给效力。     

Community care for adults with severe mental disorders in rural China: A case study

In China, family care is the dominant form of care for people with mental disorders. Since 2004, the government has been developing a community‐care model that places more responsibility on community organisations and the local governments at the provincial, municipal and county levels for the provision of formal care. As a large number of people with severe mental disorders live in rural China, this case study was conducted in a rural county in order to examine the development of community care. It was found that, although family care remains dominant, families’ need for formal care is increasing. Community services have improved, but their development is constrained by several contextual and micro factors. In this study, it is argued that the community‐care model introduces a process of reconfiguration of the relative responsibility for care among the family, social organisations and the government, but progress depends on further administrative and fiscal reforms.     

“It's not all tied up with bureaucrats and funding”: Autonomous volunteer participation in the rural resettlement of refugees

This paper reports on a study that explored the experiences, perceptions and motivations of a new type of autonomous volunteer emerging in modern society, in particular, those working to assist in the rural resettlement of refugees in Australia. The volunteers filled a gap left by under resourced government and community services. In‐depth semi structured interviews revealed that their motivation was due in part, to the lack of bureaucratic' red tape'. Their drive to address social issues was based also in part on values to see social justice expressed in their community. Some challenges and tensions due to cultural differences were identified. Questions for community development and social capital are raised. Implications are raised for volunteer groups' and resettlement organisations' policy and practice to enhance the resettlement process for both the host community and those with a refugee background.     

'Get Up. Stand Up.' Riding to resilience on a surfboard

Government policies sanctioning the systematic removal of Australian Aboriginal children from their families ended in the 1970s. However, trauma associated with removal remains active in the present day for those removed and their offspring, contributing to the pernicious interlinked set of health and social problems afflicting most Aboriginal communities. Child abuse and neglect are an important avenue of inter-generational transmission of trauma leaving many Aboriginal children challenge-averse and vulnerable to social disadvantage, substance abuse and mental health problems in later life. Child protection and health services have a poor record engaging and providing effective interventions to Aboriginal Australians. Sunset Surfers is a learn-to-surf programme targeting a disadvantaged urban neighbourhood with a high proportion of Aboriginal families. Qualitative evaluation shows that participants experienced positive effect associated with the challenging activity of learning to surf, allowing for reframing of children's negative beliefs about challenge. By providing an appropriate balance of challenge and support, and encouraging physical activity, Sunset Surfers represents a holistic, preventative approach to a pernicious array of social and health problems.     

经由社区服务培育社区软实力

在新的历史条件下,中国城市社区建设的重心发生了巨大的转变,即由注重社区物质基础设施"硬件"的建设逐渐转向了促进社区服务"软件"的发展。社区建设重心的转换,直接凸显了社区服务的地位与作用,客观上要求社区服务内容的拓展。城市社区公共服务具有公共性和社会性的属性。经由完善和发展社区公共服务,增强社区软实力,对于破解城市社区建设边缘化的困境具有重要的现实意义。     

“结对竞赛”:城市基层治理创新的一种新机制

本文聚焦近年来在城市基层治理转型前沿发生的制度性变革,即基层政府的职能重心从传统的发展经济转向公共服务与社会治理领域,使得上级政府对其治理绩效难以清晰衡量,而更依赖于“印象政绩”的评估与考核。在此条件下,基层治理场域出现了一种上级“条条”部门与下级“块块”“结对竞赛”的新机制。“结对竞赛”有助于条块部门之间紧密合作,携手实现治理创新,克服以前的条块分割问题,以便向上级发送政绩信号;但与此同时也带来了一些负向激励,导致过度创新和成功的创新经验难以扩散到竞争性地区等问题。本研究结合A区民政部门推动“社区分析工具”创新实践的案例进一步呈现了“结对竞赛”的运作机制与组织逻辑,并与“晋升锦标赛”和“项目制”等传统治理机制进行了比较。     

Anglo and Latino Differences in Willingness to Pay for Urban Public Services*

Objective. This research explores Anglo and Latino differences in willingness to pay for urban public services, assuming differences will impact service delivery in local government as the Latino population increases and becomes more visible. Methods. Survey data from a probability sample of Phoenix residents, now the nation's fifth largest city, are analyzed across 28 city services using multiple mechanisms that included a logit multivariate model. Results. Latinos are substantially more likely than Anglos to report willingness to pay for urban public services. These differences cut across services and are not mitigated by Latino income levels. Conclusions. Latinos are prepared to be full partners in improving service delivery in local government, even at the expense of out‐of‐pocket payment for services. Moreover, while increases in the Latino population will carry greater demand for more and high‐quality city services by Latinos, it is unlikely to alter the menu of preferred services along class or race/ethnic lines. The fact that Latinos seem generally more willing to pay for services also raises the possibility that Latinos are interested in investing in their communities, seeking more opportunities, and perhaps remaining in those communities.     

Policy approaches to addressing Aboriginal social inclusion in South Australia

The concept of social inclusion has been influential in shaping many aspects of social policy in Australia over the past decade. In SA the Rann Labor government established a Social Inclusion Board in 2002, which made an important contribution to development of the SA Strategic Plan that framed SA policy directions under that government. This article considers the relevance of the concept of social inclusion for addressing the disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal South Australians. It examines the SA Social Inclusion initiative and some national measures such as the Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage and Closing the Gap initiatives and discusses the appropriateness of the methodology adopted. A number of issues are addressed: the extent of Indigenous involvement in setting targets and devising programs to achieve improved social outcomes, the relevance of the targets identified, and the problem of overlapping policy initiatives at state and national level obscuring the measurement of change against specific indicators. A particular concern is that the social inclusion approach embedded in these policies pays too little attention to the priorities and preferences of Aboriginal people and interprets ‘inclusion’ in ways that assert the cultural paradigm of non‐Indigenous Australians.     

广州社区规划的探索与实践

社区规划是城市规划的重要内容。社区是城市的基本单元，社区发展直接影响到城市经济、社会的发展，因此城市规划要充分考虑社区的因素。本文探讨了城市规划与社区规划的关系，分析了社区规划的基本原则，并从宏观层面、巾观层面、微观层面、技术层面介绍了广州社区规划的特点。