Role Analysis of Social Workers’ Intervention in the Construction of Child-Friendly Community in China

Abstract

With the release of two-child policy in China, the number of children has increased, and Chinese families have ushered in the “two-child era”. The children’s generation has always been regarded as “the flower of the motherland, the hope of the future”, with the development of modern economic society, commercial houses in urban construction has been uprooted, replaced by the deterioration of acquaintance social relations network established before, the reduction of public entertainment space in the community, more crises and challenges faced by children’s living environment, how to build a child-friendly community in China has also attracted more and more attention. This paper explores the role orientation of social workers in the construction of child-friendly community in China from the perspective of social workers. 1. Concept definition Child-friendly community is a brand-new and fuzzy concept. Based on the definition of UNICEF, child-friendly community provides inclusive services in a wide range of dimensions including culture, education, health, etc. in safe and friendly community public spaces by relying on community, taking protecting children’s rights and promoting children’s development as the purpose, and taking children aged 0-18 years old as well as their guardians and other family members as service objects, which adheres to the three principles of child priority, common good, fairness and community resources. Chattopadhyay believed that child-friendly referred to living in a comfortable, protected and non-discriminatory social environment and having the power to pursue rights when neglected [1]. Li Shuwen regarded that child-friendly community referred to community where the overall environment was conducive to the healthy development of children’s physical and mental health [2]. Combined with the above views, this paper defines the concept of child-friendly community in China as: a comprehensive system provides children and their families with safety, education, entertainment, health, mental health and other services related to children by taking the community where children live as the carrier, and protecting children’s rights and promoting children’s development as the purpose. 2. The development status of child-friendly community in China In recent years, in July 30, 2011, the State Council promulgated the “Outline for the Development of Children in China (2011-2020)”. It sets new goals and measures for the development of the Chinese government’s children’s cause, and put forwards targets to be achieved for child development by 2020 from five fields: Children’s health, education, welfare, social environment and legal protection, of which include improving the social service level of children’s work and creating a child-friendly social environment. In 2016, representative of Two sessions submitted a proposal “On Incorporating ‘Child-Friendly Community’ into the Community Development Plan of All Levels of Government”, and pointed out: Children play an important role in the development of communities, but currently, children in China face threats such as traffic safety, limited outdoor activities, and inability to enjoy targeted community public services, it is necessary and urgent to build a child-friendly community, which is also an exploration of an innovative model of social governance. On April 23, 2019, established by China Community Development Association, “Construction 4th International Conference on Modern Management, Education Technology and Social Science (MMETSS 2019) Copyright © 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 351