On May 7th, the 10th (2020) Chinese Annual Conference was held online in Beijing due to the restrictions to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Adhering to the tenet of “Spreading the concept of social work and promoting the spirit of social work”, the annual conference comprehensively displays the development of social work industry, introduces excellent social workers and social work service institutions to the public, also builds a cooperation platform for enterprises, social organizations and other institutions concerned and supporting social work and social services.
Liu Jing, vice president and Secretary General of China Federation of social work, delivered a keynote speech on the theme of “Uniting Industry Strength and Sharing a Better Life”. He stressed that social work, with the mission of solving social problems and promoting human well-being, is internationally recognized as a noble profession. China’s social work has a very rapid development and broad prospects.
Since the outbreak of coronavirus, there have been more than 200000 social workers to provide professional services in prevention and control of epidemic disease. Nearly 4000 psychological service hotlines have been opened and more than 2 million people services were provided.
Social workers’ quick action is inseparable from their long-term participation in social governance. Nowadays, the demand for social service is enormous, and “Internet + Social service” based on the community will provide a broader space for social work to play a role.
In 2017, CASW has launched the “Better Community Plan” project. This project focus on urban and rural community governance and community innovation, giving full play to the professional advantages of social work, integrating multiple cross-sector resources based on the “Three Social Linkages” of community, social organizations and social workers, through four dimensions of “social governance, community building, community service, community welfare” to jointly rebuilding rural and urban community residents’ livelihood, social cultural life, and ecosystems, and eventually leads to the realization of a better life and sustainable community for all. We are confident that social workers will play a greater role as the projects proceeds.
Social work is a noble profession. In order to have the public understand social work, CASW launched “Tell Your Story” project. As more than 1.4 million professional social workers are working across China and each social worker tell him/her own story to the public will affect people around, and we believe it’s the best publicity for the society to know social worker and to understand what they do. At 2020 annual conference, CASW released the 1st collection of social workers’ “Tell Your Story”.
In 2019, social work developed rapidly in China. The number of social work service institutions has grown to more than 10000, the number of people who have obtained professional level certificates for social worker has reached to 0.53 million, more than 1.4 million social work professionals, urban and rural communities, institutions, mass organizations and social organizations have provided 380 thousands social work jobs, 50 thousands social work service stations (offices) have been set up, and a broader social work service network has been established in urban and rural areas across the country.
In order to display a full picture of the Chinese social work development and to introduce social workers and social work organizations to the society, CASW annual conference released the results of multiple selection activities,
- 2019 Top 10 Major Events promoted Chinese social work;
- Top 10 Social Workers in China in 2019;
- 100 Outstanding social workers in China;
- Top 100 social work organizations in china;
- The 4th National social work micro film competition.
This year’s conference also launched “National Medical and Social Workers capacity building project”, which will build a service system for medical and social workers, establish a practice base for medical social workers, build a network of medical and social assistance services, and train more medical and social workers from various aspects such as assistance service, professional education, model exploration and ideological advocacy.
This year’s conference has attracted a wider attention from social workers and general public from all across the country. It allowed us to spread the professional spirit of social worker, to enhance public awareness of the social work occupation; and also to expand the influence and promote further development of social work profession.
We would like to thank the IFSW, IFSW-AP and other countries and regions for their support!