A possible activity?

In the project proposal stage I intended to adopt family therapy into my project action. It does sounds like a social work as Lynda thinks.
However,where the thoughts come from is regarding Chinese parents’ expectations for their child, they place a disproportionate emphasis on their child’s educational achievement. Also, parents pay too much attention on very narrow educational content and in many cases parents have very simple ideas of how to motivate their child to study more. I considered how children are aware of this type of parent-child relationship. I am also doing family therapy course this moment and this method came into my mind naturally. Family therapists with only child family can coach parents during interactions with their child to strengthen the parent-child bond; decrease harsh; improve child social skills and cooperation; and reduce child negative behaviors. I believe it is important for children to develop the most appropriate emotions during each stage of their precious childhood. Family therapy is new for most Chinese and people have less access to family therapy. I thought what I can do more for single child families is providing a choice and opportunity taking from developed countries.

After hours schooling

After hours schooling activities were planned to bring children together to build relationships and trust. This initial gathering took place on Tuesday, 25th of May from 17pm – 18pm. The activities were fully embraced within this primary school, with 10 children being involved in this day. After hours schooling are a fantastic way for a single child to interact on an informal basis. It is vital that a single child learns basic social skills, like how to chat informally or talk to members of the opposite sex. Often, children from single child homes are incredibly spoilt and throw tantrums when things do not go their way. This is something most parents are aware of, but do not guard against.

My reflection

I learnt much from Lynda'scomments about my project plan.These make me clear what I need to strength. My project collective action might require at a “high” levels over long period before I can see any real evidence of those actions resulting in change. My road is out of community development and sounds so ambitious. It is important to recognize that different stakeholders bring a different preference for action.
If my project aims can be achieved sustainability; I need to aspire to deeper questioning. By using the iceberg model, the questions I ask the children and parents from single child family remains at the “what has happened” level, the corresponding action is to seek more methods: reaction. If the questioning goes one level deeper to “what has been happening”, perhaps those additional ways would be built ahead of demand: anticipation. I should be aware of that I am dealing with a complex problem. I need to develop a different kind of questioning that leads to very different types of action.

Reflection

Community development is about creating a better future, achieving community goals and aspirations. The role of a community development worker is to support communities in the journey of understanding and achieving our aspirations. An important part of the community engagement and participation done by community workers involves listening. Often we will be listening to individuals and groups who are marginalized, alienated or oppressed. Listening is one of the most important roles of a community worker. Listening is an art, a skill and a discipline. The individual needs to understand what is involved in listening and what factors can hinder listening. In my project after sporting activities we still continue to respond to children needs when they request us to. We want to make our work with children more proactive, more meaningful in achieving long term development.

Sporting activities

Sporting activities took place on 20th of May from 3pm to 6 pm at Wulan primary school.

listenning to children and meeting with parents

Active participation in community activities requires time, stamina and considerable personal and economic resources. My single-child project activities are difficult to take in China while I am in Australia. Two colleagues cooperate with me to take these activities. We have a power from a primary school’s principal to take activities at school. My workmates listened to children from single child family voices and stories outside of formal processes. We also hold a meeting on 18th of May at 17 pm at Wulan Primary school and parents was informed about this project and the purpose of single child families’ participation in the activities, emphasising that they have been invited because they are the parents who have the best understanding of their child.

My project framework

My project framework is based on human-orientation, accumulating social capital, creating a harmonious community.
People are the important recourses in a community. The idea of people-centered seeks to meet people needs and make the community development sustainable. It means ensuring that people have the sense of responsibility, ensuring that the people are able to break boundaries, ensuring that people have the skills and behaviors needed to be able to work in different environments.
Social capital refers to connections among individuals-social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness. Social capital in community development enables people to collectively resolve common problems and achieve common goals. An effective social capital manifests itself through equity, empowerment, community spirit, social bonds, community networks, friendships, social resources, or good neighborliness.
The theme of harmonious is from policies in China. In my framework a harmonious community based on respect and responsibility, where everyone is made to feel welcome and valued. Creating a harmonious community can work together to create a warm atmosphere.
Therefore I wish through human-orientation, social capital to create and maintain a harmonious community and to achieve sustainable development as a goal.

The overview of collective action

-raising awareness and advocacy.
-organizing workshop for different department cooperation.
-seeking international cooperation.
-providing training on skills of parenting to parents.
-developing a website
-opening a platform of information to strengthen the cooperation and promote information exchange and resource sharing.
-setting up network and developing interacting activities.
-survey are also necessary. Survey can be conducted by telephones, webs, questionnaires, interviews to parents parenting situation and so on.

A helpful book

One reading I did is “Bowling Alone” written by Robert Putnam who is a political scientist. According to Putnam, Social capital refers to connections among individuals-social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness. This definition also identifies three dimensions of social capital: bonding, bridging and linking capital. ‘Bonding’ capital refers to social connections that build on commonality and homogeneity . Some illustrations of this form of capital include the bonds between family members and close friends. ‘Bridging’ capital refers to networks across ‘diverse social divisions’. This form of capital may be present in neighbourhood networks where people form relationships across identity differences. ‘Linking’ capital refers to alliances between communities and individuals with formal power, particularly power over resources required for social and economic development. The definition of social capital help me identify issue and project because it emphasizes that networks based on trust and reciprocity that enable people to collectively resolve common problems and achieve common goals.