Volunteer service development to
Avoid a "one-size-fits-all" mindset
Tan Jianguang
Since the late 80s of the 20th century, I have come into contact with volunteers in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as volunteers in Hong Kong and Macao, and have had an understanding of volunteer service, and since 1995, when I was commissioned to carry out a special research on volunteer service in Shenzhen, and began to focus on and investigate the development and innovation of volunteer service, it has been more than 30 years. We have seen that with the support and promotion of the party and the state, volunteer service has made great progress and has become a noble cause that everyone pays attention to and cares about; we have also seen that volunteer service has played an increasingly important role in promoting the progress of social civilization, promoting innovation in social governance, promoting social care and mutual assistance, and promoting the harmonious development of society. However, over the years, some localities and institutions have always been accustomed to using a "one-size-fits-all" thinking to promote volunteer service, and when good typical experiences are found, they will be promoted without restrictions, and if they adopt a new method, they will pursue full coverage, and if they formulate a performance indicator, they will be used indiscriminately, which often leads to extremes, diminishing results, and even causes dissatisfaction and complaints from volunteers and volunteer service organizations. For this reason, we believe that in the new era and the development of prosperous volunteering, special attention should be paid to avoiding the "one-size-fits-all" mentality. There is a saying in China that "nothing can be done", no matter how good things are, if they are done, one size fits all will bring many problems. To this end, it is particularly necessary to encourage the development thinking of seeking truth from facts, and especially to encourage flexible and diverse exploration and innovation. Therefore, I specially wrote articles to share and communicate with you.
01
Volunteers should have a sense of mission, but they should not be turned into mechanical tasks
Contemporary China's volunteer service is developed and strengthened under the leadership of the party, and it is necessary to contribute to the realization of the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the promotion of social civilization, the innovation of social governance, and the creation of a better life. Therefore, it is especially necessary for volunteers and volunteer service organizations to have a sense of mission and honor, and to make continuous efforts and more achievements in volunteer service. However, some localities and departments have simplified this sense of mission and turned it into a mechanical task, assigning tasks to volunteers and volunteer service organizations at various levels, and even adopting unit work language such as "implementing tasks and compacting responsibilities", which has suppressed the love of volunteers and weakened their enthusiasm. Because volunteers are motivated by love, voluntarily participate in the activities of caring for others and serving the society, not the working conditions of administrative units and industrial and commercial enterprises, and do not undertake hard tasks. Therefore, party and government departments at all levels should be good at stimulating volunteers' sense of mission and stimulating volunteers' love and dedication, but try to avoid contusions caused by mechanical assignments. The sense of mission of volunteers includes not only the "big mission" of dedication to the country and the people, but also the "small mission" of dedication to the homeland and hometown. Recently, I am writing a reminiscence article, recalling the first time I was commissioned by the Shenzhen Youth League Municipal Committee and the Shenzhen Volunteer Federation in 1995 to carry out a special survey on the development of volunteer service. At that time, I was particularly impressed by the two sentences of the League cadres and young cadres who initially promoted the birth and development of volunteer service in Shenzhen. "In times of lack of ideals, we create ideals, and in times of lack of enthusiasm, we create passion. When the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone had just been established, many people were "looking at money" and chasing economic interests, and a group of young people launched volunteer services for the country and the people. At the same time, when a young woman signed up as a volunteer, she filled in the motivation on the registration form very touching, "Because I have kind parents, I hope that the old people in the world will spend their old age in peace, because I have lively children, I hope that all children in the world will be happy and innocent, because I have a loving family, I hope that there are lovers in the world who will eventually become married." For this reason, I am willing to volunteer to help others in the society!" This is the dedication to the homeland, the hometown and others in "the old and the old, and the young and the young". It can be seen that it is very important and has a very positive significance to stimulate the sense of mission and the noble aspirations of volunteers and volunteer service organizations, but it is necessary to prevent it from turning into mechanical tasks and hard work.
02
Volunteers should be organized and managed, but they should not be turned into administrative constraints
In the early to mid-90s of the 20th century, when I began to engage in volunteer service research, I came into contact with some foreign experts, and I often came into contact with the backbone of volunteers in Hong Kong and Macao. They told me that the difference between volunteering and traditional neighborhood support is that one is to help strangers, and the other is to serve in an organized way. For a long time, I also accepted this notion as a measure of the nature of volunteerism. However, at the beginning of the 21st century, I once visited Professor Wang Sibin, a social work expert at Peking University, and he asked a question, "Xiao Tan, do you think that the service provided by rural villagers to help non-immediate family members, including distant relatives, is it considered voluntary service, and whether the service carried out by rural ethnic groups and clans is regarded as voluntary service?" In addition, in the city, it relies on units, institutions, and registered associations, while in the countryside there are not so many processes, and whether the group services established by the ethnic groups on their own initiative meet the requirements. Since then, I have not only supported the organizational and normative development of volunteer service, but also do not want to "one size fits all", and I have also paid attention to and attached importance to all kinds of informal and sporadic volunteer service phenomena. At the same time, we have also found that some localities and institutions have completely applied the development and management of volunteer service organizations to the methods of administrative departments, from organizational settings to management processes, which are very cumbersome and rigid, which greatly dampens the enthusiasm of volunteers and reduces the attractiveness of volunteer service organizations. Therefore, when promoting the development of volunteer service organization and encouraging the emergence of more volunteer associations and groups, it is also necessary to explore flexible and humanized management methods, reduce the impact of single administrative constraints, maintain the vitality of volunteer service organizations, and provide better services and dedication for the social population.
03
Volunteering requires an information system, but it cannot be time-based
Over the years, "information management", "information system", "timing" and "entry" of volunteer service have become hot words, and "China Volunteer", "Volunteer China", "Volunteer Cloud", "Volunteer Exchange", "i Volunteer" and other types of information management systems have dazzled everyone. With the advent of the era of big data and the advancement of the information age, it is very necessary to speed up the construction of information systems in the field of volunteer service, and to do a good job in data collection and management, which is also a key link to improve efficiency and prevent risks. However, some localities and institutions are moving towards a simplistic "timekeeping superstition", which not only pursues the increase in record hours, but also measures the effectiveness of all volunteers and volunteer service organizations by service time. This raises a number of new problems. First, it is difficult to cover multiple types of volunteer services by simply relying on service timekeeping to measure all effectiveness. Judging from our investigation, simple physical services can be managed in time, but it is difficult to do time management with smart services and technical services. In addition, it is also a physical service, and the timing effect of simple physical service and skill-based physical service is very different. Second, the needs of volunteers are different. Ordinary volunteers pay more attention to service time, and pay attention to star rewards and excellent rewards according to the number of service hours, while middle and high-end volunteers do not pay much attention to service timing and incentives, and pay more attention to the level and effectiveness of their own services. Third, the more and more common simple service timing management, but also caused some people to be opportunistic and deceitful, such as "purchase hours", "help extra hours" and other violations in some outlets clearly marked prices. Fourth, some ordinary volunteers are concerned about service time, causing various contradictions and conflicts. For example, the "Top 100 Volunteer Selection" in a city is based on service timing as the main criterion. Due to the fact that the outsiders who selected the "Top 100" were rewarded with points to enter the household, various complaint letters and accusation letters emerged during the selection period, accusing and slandering each other. It can be seen that with the advent of the digital era, it is very beneficial to make full use of the construction of information systems to provide support and assistance for volunteer service management and incentives, volunteer project docking and implementation, etc. However, the use of "one-size-fits-all" and "simplistic" thinking, relying entirely on volunteer service time, will lead to the above contradictions and problems. To this end, we should not only make full use of and give full play to the positive role of digital management in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of volunteer service, but also avoid the extreme phenomenon and all kinds of new confusion and dilemmas caused by the "timing myth", and promote the scientific and rational development of volunteer service. Among them, special attention should be paid to the effective services provided by different types of volunteers using sporadic time and giving full play to their wisdom and knowledge, such as experts and scholars using telephone, WeChat, QQ and other professional consulting services for volunteer service organizations, professional and technical personnel to provide technical support services for the masses, skilled workers to provide technical services for the masses, etc., which do not necessarily take a lot of time, but the volunteer service that effectively solves difficulties and problems should attract sufficient attention.
04
Volunteering should have social benefits, but it should not be made metrical
In the early stage of the development of volunteer service, we either paid attention to the volunteer service of large-scale activities, or paid attention to the "one-to-one" and "many-to-one" care and assistance services, and the requirements for service effect and service efficiency were not particularly strict. In recent years, on the one hand, the government has placed special emphasis on performance and effectiveness in purchasing the services of social organizations, and has set out many requirements for indicators; on the other hand, when volunteer service organizations compare and compete with each other, they have also taken social benefits as a factor, and new indicators have been constantly generated. As a professional worker who has followed up and investigated volunteer service for nearly 30 years, on the one hand, I believe that it is necessary to pay attention to the social benefits of volunteer service, and guide and motivate volunteers and volunteer service organizations to take the effect of caring for and helping social groups as an important part of measuring service activities; We have seen several biases in the survey: First, all departments require indicators and quantities. Therefore, after the grassroots units carry out an activity of caring for and helping the masses, or the masses participating in the service, they should take several photos and report them to the higher-level departments to "leave traces" and "testify." For example, "the voucher of the service activities of the party and the masses at the higher level", "the voucher of the government to purchase social work services", "the voucher of the federation to fund volunteer service activities" and so on. The popular language of the masses said, "The volunteer activities did not take long, and it took a lot of time to take pictures." "Second, in order to achieve the target, some volunteer service organizations only pursue quantity, rather than focusing on service effectiveness. Whether it is emergency volunteer service into the community, or caring for the elderly into the community, or Lumei community service activities, it is to mobilize and require more people to participate as much as possible. However, due to the large number of people, there are not many opportunities for everyone to participate in the content of the event and get services, so they stay on the sidelines and wait. However, as long as the volunteer organization takes a photo and registers the number of people, it meets the target. Third, some volunteer service organizations only pay attention to the scene and the number of people, and take pictures of the "crowded" service site for publicity, so as to receive praise and rewards, and often do not pay much attention to the follow-up service after the activity, resulting in the "beginning but not tail" of volunteer service activities. We believe that in order to avoid the tendency of simply "indexing" and "emphasizing only quantity and not practical results", volunteer service organizations in various regions should pay more attention to the specific links of volunteer service and earnestly help the masses in difficulty and need, when doing a certain number of activities in accordance with the requirements and attracting a certain number of volunteers to participate. For example, in our survey, we found a volunteering organization that focuses on helping with the training and rehabilitation of children with sound impairments. Over the past few years, their volunteers have been following and relaying services for a long time, helping the three children with sound impairment overcome various difficulties and gradually regain their voice, so that they can live and go to school normally. I think that perhaps the number of "three children" does not reflect the advantages of the assessment mechanism that pursues a large number of indicators and a large number of people. However, long-term persistence, perseverance, and down-to-earth and effective efforts to help the three hearing-impaired children achieve their rehabilitation goals and solve the difficulties and problems of the three families are precisely the social benefits achieved by volunteer service organizations, which deserve to be commended and learned. We believe that social benefits can not only be reflected through certain indicators, but also through solid and effective services, and real results.
05
Volunteering needs to be a project implementation, but it can't be a red tape
I am one of the enthusiastic promoters of the development of volunteer service projects, from 2005 to participate in the evaluation of the special fund of the Foshan Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government to support youth volunteer service projects, to participate in the evaluation of the Guangzhou Volunteer Service Exchange Conference and Project Competition in 2011, and then to serve as the judge of the previous China Youth Volunteer Service Project Competitions and Volunteer Service Exchange Conferences in 2014. In addition, he also served as the judge of a number of provinces, cities, counties and districts for the New Era Civilization Practice Volunteer Service Project Competition, the Social Governance Volunteer Service Project Competition, the Yimiao Program Volunteer Service Project Competition, and the Fraternity 100 Public Welfare Volunteer Service Project Competition. In addition, I have written a number of articles to guide volunteers from various regions and organizations to do a good job in project declaration, project display, project defense, etc. Why am I so enthusiastic and active in promoting the development and innovation of volunteer service projects, and participating in the evaluation and promotion of various project competitions. Because, I feel that volunteering that originally stayed at the activity level is often "vigorous and fleeting". Only through the operation of the project can volunteers and volunteer service organizations be guided to do a good job in helping others and serving the society, so that they can produce good results and continue to benefit the social population. However, with the development of volunteer service projects, there has also been an extreme phenomenon of "one size fits all", which has aroused my concern and vigilance. For example, in some project competitions, the judges are picky about the volunteers who introduce the service content, using a lot of professional terms and harsh processes to stump the volunteers, which is very unfriendly. In fact, whether it is a volunteer service project competition or a volunteer service project evaluation, we must face reality and seek truth from facts. Volunteer service projects receive very little government support or social funding funds, some provinces and cities win the gold award is 20,000 yuan, and the silver award is 10,000 yuan. The amount of support funds obtained by these volunteer service projects is very small compared with the tens of millions of yuan or millions of yuan for each project when other social institutions and social organizations apply for government procurement of services. Therefore, it is more important to improve the operational level of volunteers and volunteer service organizations through project review and project evaluation, rather than being overly demanding and blaming. In addition, the content of some project declaration documents is too demanding and too detailed, which makes it difficult for volunteer service organizations from towns and villages to fill in and discourage. When I was investigating, I heard the person in charge of more than one volunteer service organization say, "It is too difficult to declare the project, and it is even more difficult to request materials and invoices during the implementation process, and we don't want to declare anymore." "Therefore, we need to think about grassroots volunteers and volunteer service organizations, and try to simplify the process of project declaration, so that they are willing to declare, get exercise, and learn and grow. I have a simple "seven-five-three" idea: that is, for the application of volunteer service projects with strong professionalism or high level, seven or more content columns can be set up for volunteer service organizations to fill in in detail and understand more deeply. For the declaration of volunteer service projects at the city and county levels, five columns may be set up. If you apply for the project of township and village volunteer service organizations, you can simply set up three content columns, such as "project overview", "project progress" and "predicted results", so that grassroots volunteers can easily fill in, be willing to declare, and get opportunities to learn and exercise. Nowadays, the staff of many departments and institutions are university graduates, even master's and doctoral graduates, and are accustomed to setting very detailed content requirements according to the requirements of course papers and graduation theses. However, when carrying out the application and evaluation of volunteer service projects, it is necessary to encourage more volunteer service organizations from communities, rural areas, enterprises and other volunteer service organizations to participate, and we should follow the principle of "if necessary", and strive to be simple and clear, and reduce red tape, so that grassroots volunteers can truly participate and are willing to participate.
06
Volunteers need to be trained and improved, but they should not be turned into rigid courses
When we do research in various places, we often hear two very different statements. Some local volunteers and volunteer service organizations reflected, "We are in great need of training and promotion of volunteer service, and there is a lack of training." At the same time, volunteers and volunteer service organizations in some places reported that "the content of volunteer service training is too simple, and the results of listening to it are not great, and fewer and fewer people are willing to listen." "Without analysis, it feels like a diametrically contradictory statement, but when you analyze it carefully, you find that it is a reflection of a different situation. In many places, volunteers and volunteer service organizations are in particular need of practical and enlightening training. For example, when we went to the Xinjiang Autonomous Region to give lectures, some cities and prefectures not only listened to the lectures online and offline, but also went to towns and villages for counseling, grassroots cadres and volunteer backbones took the initiative to come in advance to inquire and consult. However, we have also heard that in some localities, the volunteer service training courses are either repeated over and over the basics of basic theories, so that the volunteers feel superficial and unable to learn anything; sometimes they invite big experts to give lectures, citing many cases from foreign countries and big cities, but they lack practical guidance for the needs of grassroots cadres and backbone volunteers, and "they are confused and do not know what they are talking about"; some training courses are even more formal, and the lecturers read according to the books and scripts, which does not inspire or enlighten the volunteers. These rigid and mechanical training courses not only fail to meet the needs of volunteers, but also cause resistance among volunteers, believing that they are rigid requirements and take up time. Therefore, we believe that according to the needs of volunteers in different regions and different organizations, more high-quality, down-to-earth and enlightening courses should be delivered to grassroots volunteer service organizations. At the same time, all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions should do a good job in the excavation and training of volunteer mentors, so that more tutors are familiar with both theoretical knowledge and the actual situation, and teach volunteer service courses that meet the needs of volunteers and have guiding and enlightening value.
07
Volunteer service should adapt to the development of the network, but it should not become a virtual one
The advent of the network society has brought both opportunities and challenges to volunteer service. In the past, volunteers and volunteer service organizations had a very limited scope of communication, and most of them were limited to their own regions, except for a very few that could be disseminated through television, newspapers, etc. With the new opportunity of the network society, volunteers and volunteer service organizations can spread to the whole society through new media and self-media, and "everyone is a publisher and everyone is a communicator" is also suitable for volunteers and volunteer service organizations. However, at the same time, volunteers also faced great challenges, saying a word inappropriately, and doing a bad thing quickly formed a network-wide spread, causing widespread controversy and criticism. At this time, some volunteers and volunteer service organizations are keen to pursue the development of the network, and rely more on the network for management, service, evaluation, publicity and promotion. However, after a period of practice, it is found that the network expansion that lacks a realistic foundation also faces many difficulties and causes many problems, such as a large number of personnel, chaotic services, disorderly evaluation, distortion of communication, and so on. For this reason, we find that the field of volunteer service, like the field of economic production, will have an unstable foundation and suffer setbacks in development if it completely moves towards "moving from real to virtual". Therefore, most volunteers and volunteer service organizations still need to do a good job in providing services to the society, reality, grassroots and the masses, and at the same time take the initiative to expand dissemination and services in the field of networking, so as to obtain better development opportunities. In recent years, the Guangdong Provincial Association for the Promotion of Social Workers and Volunteers, where I work, has paid special attention to the "combination of virtual and real" and "combination of network and entity". On the one hand, expand volunteer service training, supervision, consultation and planning for all parts of the country, especially for counties, districts and townships, and help grassroots volunteers and volunteer service organizations to do a good job in service and build brands. In recent years, he has been invited to nearly 30 provinces and municipalities, more than 160 counties and cities, and more than 400 communities and rural areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Fujian, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, etc., and has accumulated rich experience and materials. On the other hand, the WeChat public account of "Social Journal" has been set up to upload cases of investigation and counseling, as well as articles on reflection and analysis, to provide reference and exchange for volunteers and volunteer service organizations across the country. In this way, a "two-way" concept dissemination and knowledge transfer of online and offline and online entities will be formed, and professional contributions will be made to the innovation and development of volunteer service. It can be seen that being down-to-earth and looking up at the starry sky is also the development path that volunteers and volunteer service organizations should follow.
About the Author
Tan Jianguang (1960-), professor. Honorary President of Guangdong Association for the Promotion of Social Workers and Volunteer Cooperation, Professor of Guangdong Youth League School (Guangdong Youth University of Politics).
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Source: Sociology
2024 No. 287 | Total 471445 issue
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