Projects

Social workers--
To embrace the compliment and to face the challenge

The 5.12 disaster opened up opportunities for social workers to involve in immediate relief and reconstruction work. At the initial stage, social work educators and teachers formed their professional team with students and volunteers and engaged in providing services in a spontaneous, reactive and non-structured basis. “Social workers” begin to be recognized as a profession with specialized knowledge and skills, working in a person-centered and committed way, play a significant role in facilitation, giving support and linking resources in disaster areas.

Social work stations begin to emerge with the support of different sources of funding; young social workers are employed to render post-disaster social services mainly in school settings and communities. Social work educators face the challenge of how to ensure ‘quality service’ in the reconstruction process and to support their graduates to travel along the trail of professional development.

Project Aims

The Keswick project aims at providing professional support to post disaster reconstruction in several ways. “Capacity building” is the underpinning philosophy and direction of the project. According to the United Nation Development Programs (UNDP), 'Capacity Building’ is defined as:

• the creation of an enabling environment with appropriate policy and legal frameworks;
• institutional development, including community participation (of women in particular);
• human resources development and strengthening of managerial systems.

UNDP recognizes that capacity building is a long-term, continuing process, in which all stakeholders participate.

Four Foci

From 2008 to 2011, the project will work for four specific foci:

• To facilitate and encourage collaboration and partnership among social work educators and professionals, government systems and NGOs.
• To engage in post-disaster service development and work for indigenous practice models.
• To strengthen human resource development by equipping social work practitioners with adequate professional knowledge and skills.
• To consolidate the practice experiences by engaging social work practitioners and educators in action researches and disaster curriculum development.

We would like to see a more cohesive, competent and committed social work professional team be established and consolidated. We would like to envision a recovered and strengthened Sichuan becomes a city full of vitality in the future.