Yingshan, Sichuan: Writing a heartwarming chapter in people's livelihoods with the professional strength of social workers

In early June, social workers and volunteers participated in the launching ceremony of the Love based Exam Delivery. Photo by Guo Ming

Social work is a noble undertaking that carries the responsibility of serving the people, soothing their souls, and uniting grassroots forces. In recent years, Yingshan County, Nanchong City, Sichuan Province, has anchored the multi-level, differentiated, and personalized livelihood needs of the masses, continuously improved the comprehensive social work service system, expanded and improved the talent team of social workers, built multiple platforms for learning, improvement, and practical exercise, and promoted social workers to root themselves in the urban and rural front lines and fulfill their duties. Nowadays, the social work team has become an indispensable backbone in serving the masses, spreading love, and connecting resources.

Party building leads the integration of social consciousness and empowers grassroots governance to increase efficiency

Years of land fertility subsidies have been distributed to my account, and the land is also cultivated by me. It is reasonable for whoever cultivates to benefit, "said Lao Jiang, a resident of Hongguang Community in Langchi Street, Yingshan County, who had a dispute with his stepdaughter Xu over the ownership of the land fertility subsidies. Xu proposed that the ownership of the land cultivated by his stepfather belongs to him, and the land fertility subsidy should be received by him. Both sides hold their own views, and multiple negotiations have failed to reach a consensus, resulting in long-standing unresolved family conflicts.

Tang Qin, a certified social worker in Hongguang Community, grasped the clues of the dispute during daily visits and took the initiative to conduct multiple rounds of mediation and guidance. Combining land policies and family reasons, they communicated and persuaded each other in both directions, ultimately leading to a consensus between the two parties: the subsidies previously paid to Lao Jiang's name do not need to be refunded, and all subsequent land subsidies will be received by Xu. The long-standing family conflict was successfully resolved, and two generations shook hands and made peace.

Hongguang Community is a typical resettlement and reconstruction community in the process of urbanization. With the expansion of the city, the transformation of residents' identities, reconstruction of living spaces, and upgrading of people's livelihood needs have emerged, and the contradictions arising from demolition and resettlement have been increasing year by year.

In order to address the pain points of community governance in resettlement, last year, the community was successfully selected as a pilot project for the integration of "professional social workers+volunteer services" led by the Party building in Sichuan Province, and simultaneously applied for the "mediator" - the special project of Lianxin Bridge for mediating residents' conflicts and disputes. After the project was implemented, the community firmly grasped the core positioning of party building leadership, deeply connected the cooperation channels between professional social workers and volunteer services, established a full chain disposal mechanism for source investigation, on-site mediation, and follow-up visits, and resolved a large number of grassroots conflicts on the spot.

On June 26th, medical consultation services were conducted in Baita Community, Sui'an Street, Yingshan County. Deng Jingyi provides pictures

We recruit party members and community talents both online and offline, select key members of the public who are familiar with the local situation, knowledgeable about policies, and good at communication to form a 'mediator' volunteer service team, and cultivate legal experts and gold medal mediators. "Wu Qiang, Secretary of the Red Light Community Party Committee, introduced that the community has built a three-level service structure of" community coordination social work coordination volunteer execution ", relying on the professional methods of social workers and the local network advantages of volunteers to accurately identify the crux of conflicts and efficiently handle various neighborhood and family disputes.

Hongguang Community has established a new dispute mediation mechanism with party building leadership, professional social worker support, volunteer service support, and multi-party collaborative participation. Social workers and volunteers are deeply embedded in the community governance network, becoming an important carrier for buffering conflicts and reconciling neighborhood relationships. It truly realizes early detection and rapid resolution of conflicts, continuously improves the level of community autonomy and residents' sense of participation and satisfaction. "Zhang Yu, Deputy Minister of the Social Work Department of Yingshan County Committee, evaluated the effectiveness of the pilot.

Not long ago, the pilot project of integrating "professional social workers+volunteer services" led by party building in Hongguang Community passed the acceptance smoothly, forming a standardized mediation method of "party committee coordination, social worker coordination, volunteer execution, and multi-party linkage", and producing a set of replicable, implementable, and promotable practical experience in resettlement community governance.

After the pilot work is completed, Yingshan will launch the second phase of comprehensive expansion work. The whole county adheres to the principles of adapting to local conditions, improving quality and efficiency, and steadily promoting implementation. Communities are taken as the main battlefield for grassroots governance and the main scene for serving the masses. Differentiated social and ideological collaborative service models are classified and created, and representative communities such as Baita and Xicheng are selected to replicate and promote the mature practices of Hongguang Community.

Establishing a sound system to support the long-term development of social work specialization

Let's all smile and make a wish together. I'll take a photo of you. "Recently, Longyue Village in Laolin Town, Yingshan County held a collective birthday party, where 18 left behind elderly people who turned 60 years old from January to April gathered at the home of villager Li Jianmin. They sang birthday songs, shared birthday cakes, sat together and chatted about daily life, creating a warm atmosphere on site.

This left behind elderly collective birthday party with the theme of 'Warm Gathering in Longyue, Blessing and Longevity Companionship' was fully planned and implemented by Wu Lingli, the deputy director of the village committee and assistant social worker. Xiao Jian, the first secretary of Longyue Village dispatched by the Social Work Department of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee, introduced that Wu Lingli carefully considered the entire process from food procurement, elderly transportation, activity venue layout to on-site interactive design, fully demonstrating her solid practical ability in social work.

Wu Lingli's formal exposure to social work began in 2024. "Luo Jun, the person in charge of the" Three Zone Plan "Yingshan project, clearly remembers that at that time, the Social Work Department of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee included Yingshan in the" Three Zone Plan "and carried out pilot work in Longyue Village, holding a lively Farmers' Harvest Festival event. As a county-level social work talent training object, Wu Lingli participated in the planning, organization, and implementation of the event throughout the process, allowing her to accumulate valuable first experience.

Vocational skills training for community elderly care workers conducted at the Hongguang Community Education and Training Base. Photo by Guo Ming

With this "ice breaking" journey in social work, Wu Lingli has gained a new understanding of social work and has made up her mind to do a good job in it. So, she systematically studied the theory of social work and actively applied for the vocational qualification examination, successfully obtaining the social worker vocational qualification certificate and becoming an assistant social worker. Afterwards, she carefully planned and carried out various activities, inviting various associations in the county to organize the "Sending Literature and Art to the Countryside" activity in Longyue Village, enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the people in Longyue Village; Every year, the "Village BA" competition is organized to attract surrounding villagers and workers to the village to carry out a series of basketball activities. Normalized basketball has become a "beautiful business card" of the village

Wu Lingli's transformation from a novice social worker to a backbone talent capable of independently coordinating projects and serving the masses is a microcosm of the achievements in cultivating social work talents in Yingshan County. The once deserted Longyue Village has continued to improve its vitality under the guidance of professional social workers, with more harmonious neighborly relationships and significantly enhanced cohesion in rural governance.

In order to strengthen the social work team and consolidate the foundation of social work talents in the county, Yingshan County specially opened a special training course for social workers before the professional qualification examination in May this year. Industry professional lecturers were invited to give concentrated lectures, and more than 200 participating social workers were sorted out for the examination points, consolidated their professional knowledge, and effectively improved the pass rate of the examination.

In recent years, Yingshan has regularly offered pre exam training for social workers, with a total of nearly 2000 participants and nearly 500 certified social workers. Synchronize the deployment of grassroots community workers and grid management teams, with nearly 600 on duty community workers, including more than 70 certified social workers; According to the standardization of "multi grid integration and one grid member", 438 urban and rural governance grids are divided, and full-time grid personnel are fully equipped.

The synchronous construction of hardware positions and talent teams, Yingshan is innovatively promoting the integrated service model of "social work+volunteer service", accelerating the construction of a "1+29" county-level and township social work service system: 1 county-level social work station and 29 township (street) social work service stations; Build a "1+29+364" volunteer service system at the county, township, and village levels, covering one county-level team, 29 township teams, and 364 village level volunteer teams. The total scale of social workers and volunteers in the county exceeds 10000, forming a service force matrix with full coverage.

Connecting activities to create small and micro service projects that warm the hearts of neighbors

Recently, the Xicheng Community Square in Sui'an Street, Yingshan County was bustling with activity, and the "Small Goodness Garden Party" with the theme of "Gathering Small Goodness, Gathering Great Love, and Consolidating Unity to Harmonious Neighbors" was successfully launched. The activity is divided into four sections: fun interaction, policy consultation, charity experience, and charity sale. Residents can exchange gifts by participating in games such as throwing pots and rings; The 9.9 yuan charity blind box attracts citizens to purchase it eagerly, and all the proceeds from the charity sale will be included in the community charity special fund; Set up a one yuan small charity donation area on site, where citizens can easily make small donations to help disadvantaged groups fulfill their micro wishes.

Residents of Xicheng Community participate in fun park activities (information picture). Photo by Guo Ming

It is reported that this garden party is the first event of the "Warm West City, Neighborhood Mutual Aid" series of actions in Xicheng Community. This year, the community successfully applied for the Sichuan Province "Warm Community Plan" special fund "Neighborhood Watch" volunteer service project. The holding of the park party marks the comprehensive launch of the neighborhood mutual aid series of services.

It is reported that the service period of the "Warm West City · Neighborhood Mutual Aid" action is from February to July this year, aiming to solve the practical problems of insufficient community neighborhood interaction and weak public welfare and charity atmosphere, build a responsive, widely covered, and efficient neighborhood mutual aid support network, create a friendly and warm community, and build a concentric circle of youth care and volunteer services. Relying on the integrated service model of social workers and volunteers, we can accurately resolve the urgent and difficult problems of the elderly, minors, and families in need.

We rely on the provincial-level 'Neighborhood Watch' project, focus on the core needs of 'one elderly, one small', and carry out a series of activities such as one-on-one assistance for elderly people from disadvantaged families, caring free clinics to protect their health, and using the elderly to help the elderly spread warmth, to achieve the construction goal of 'neighborhood mutual assistance, neighborhood governance, and deep neighborly affection', "said Li Wenbin, Secretary of the Xicheng Community Party Committee.

This year, the Social Work Department of Yingshan County Committee will focus on cultivating local community volunteer service organizations and implement a number of regular, long-term, and refined "small and beautiful, small and refined, small and excellent" community volunteer service projects. The county has established a specialized work team led by the street party working committee, supported by functional departments, implemented by communities, and coordinated by volunteer teams. The pilot implementation plan and task list have been refined, and the standardized operation process of social work leading planning, volunteer implementation, and multi-party resource linkage guarantee has been clarified.

Residents of Xicheng Community are competing to purchase charity blind boxes (see picture). Photo by Guo Ming

Currently, characteristic small and micro volunteer service projects are blooming in various streets of the county, covering different groups and diverse needs. Suishan Community in Sui'an Street has launched the "Micro Love One Meal" elderly care project, providing centralized dining and home delivery services for the elderly in the jurisdiction; The Baita Community in Sui'an Street is creating a "heartwarming" intangible cultural heritage handicraft classroom for disabled children, linking professional social workers, volunteer service teams, and special education schools to provide fun and accompanying handicraft teaching for disabled children; Xicheng Community launched the "Smart Sunset" volunteer service, guiding the elderly to operate smart devices, popularizing anti fraud and anti fraud knowledge, and helping the elderly to integrate digitally

In addition to community small and micro volunteer service projects, the county-level standardized social work service project is steadily advancing. In recent years, Yingshan County has implemented the "fill the gaps" renovation project of urban and rural community party and mass service centers in Longyue Village, Laolin Town, Pingqiao Village, Lingjiu Town, and Changling Village, Shuangliu Town; The "Capacity Enhancement" Project for Urban and Rural Comprehensive Services has been implemented in Hongguang Community of Langchi Street and Heping Community of Luoshi Town. By introducing professional social work organizations to settle in, we provide six basic services to the public, including demand investigation, social assistance, and care for the elderly and young, comprehensively promoting the deepening and implementation of county-level social work services.

Social work and volunteer service share an inherent connection. Social workers and volunteers are not only practitioners on the front line of grassroots governance, but also builders of maintaining social stability, promoting social fairness and justice. They are also guardians of conveying humanistic values, shaping social civilization, and raising social temperature. Li Weili, Minister of the Social Work Department of Yingshan County Committee, stated that in the next step, Yingshan will continue to attract diverse social forces to join the social work team, promote professional social workers to root in urban and rural areas, and empower the high-quality development of the county's economy and society with the power of social work. (Guo Mingwen)