Digital empowerment, high-quality development of voluntary service
Author: Ma Longjun (School of Social Development and Public Administration, Northwest Normal University)
Volunteer service in the new era is an important way for voluntary organizations and volunteers to carry forward the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation, practice socialist core values, serve the public and promote social development. The Party’s Report to the 20th CPC National Congress proposed to "improve the volunteer service system and work system", which pointed out the direction for promoting the high-quality development of volunteer service. The Party and State Institutional Reform Plan adopted by the Second Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to set up the Central Social Work Department, and defined the responsibilities of the Central Social Work Department "overall planning, coordination, guidance, supervision and inspection of the national voluntary service work assigned to the Office of the Central Steering Committee for Spiritual Civilization Construction", and further promoted the voluntary service work by optimizing the institutional setup and functional allocation.
Deep integration of digital technology and voluntary service
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has attached great importance to voluntary service, continuously strengthened top-level design, and promulgated a series of policies and regulations, which has promoted the vigorous development of voluntary service in China and made great achievements. According to the statistics of China Volunteer Service Network, by May 25, 2023, there were 231 million real-name volunteers, 1.35 million volunteer service teams, 10.96 million volunteer service projects and 5,318.14 million hours of volunteer service. Volunteer service in the new era adheres to the spirit of "dedication, friendship, mutual assistance and progress", constantly enriches the service content and innovates the service form, and plays an important role in serving the national strategy, serving the people’s livelihood and promoting the construction of a social governance pattern of co-construction, co-governance and sharing.
The new era is also an era in which a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation are accelerating. The rapid development of digital technology with data as the core has triggered profound changes in social production methods, lifestyles and governance methods, and has become an important driving force for high-quality economic and social development. The CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has grasped the general trend of the times, seized the historical opportunity and made a series of major decisions and arrangements on digital China, network power and smart society. This also means that the volunteer service in the new era needs to resonate and cooperate with digitalization at the same frequency. Specifically, it is necessary to accelerate the deep integration of volunteer service with digital technologies such as Internet, Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and provide multi-faceted integrated services for volunteer service objects, volunteers, voluntary organizations, government regulators and other stakeholders through more flexible, open, convenient and intelligent digital methods, so as to promote the realization of one-click demand for volunteer service, full coverage of demand integration, zero delay in service response and accurate service supply.
In order to implement the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee, civil affairs departments at all levels, the Communist Youth League, the Civilization Office and other volunteer service departments throughout the country have made great efforts to promote the digitalization of volunteer service. For example, in 2018, the Ministry of Civil Affairs began to implement the "internet plus Social Organization (Social Work, Volunteer Service)" three-year action, which realized the iterative upgrade of the national volunteer service information system and basically built a volunteer service big data resource database. At present, the digitalization of volunteer service has achieved positive results through the cooperation of various departments, the coordination at all levels and the linkage between different sectors. However, there are still some problems, such as weak digitalization foundation, insufficient integration of digital technology and volunteer service such as Internet, Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Promoting the high-quality development of volunteer service by digitalization has great potential and broad prospects.
From the theoretical perspective of "system-process", to promote the high-quality development of volunteer service by digitalization, we need to start from two aspects: the static volunteer service system and the dynamic volunteer service process, and work together through the digitalization of volunteer service system and volunteer service process.
Digitalization of volunteer service system
Volunteer service system is an organic whole composed of different elements, which can be divided into entity elements and abstract elements. Entity elements include people, money, things and places in voluntary service, while abstract elements include values, goals, systems, information, power, responsibilities and interests in voluntary service system. From the perspective of system theory, the digitalization of voluntary service system is firstly the digitalization of the above-mentioned entity elements and abstract elements.
The first is the digitization of the substantive elements of the volunteer service system. First of all, focusing on the requirements of people’s various roles in the volunteer service system, we will conduct hierarchical and classified digital training for key service targets, volunteers, voluntary organization managers and government regulators. Improve the digital literacy and skills of all kinds of people in the volunteer service system, especially the skills of skillfully using the volunteer service digital system. Secondly, focusing on digital payment and reimbursement, we will establish a digital financial management system for voluntary service, and promote the real-time supervision of the scale, flow direction, progress and use efficiency of voluntary service funds. Thirdly, with the Internet of Things technology as the core, we will promote the digitalization of volunteer service materials, venues and other elements, and realize the intelligent identification, positioning, tracking and supervision of volunteer service materials. From this point of view, the key to the digitalization of the substantive elements of the volunteer service system lies in the research and development and construction of digital infrastructure in the field of volunteer service.
The second is the digitization of the abstract elements of the volunteer service system. On the shallow level, the digitization of abstract elements of the volunteer service system is to transfer the values, objectives, systems, information, power, responsibility and interests in the volunteer service system from the traditional paper media or language behavior media to the electronic media, which is more reflected in the changes in storage and communication means; The deeper digitalization is to concretize and visualize the abstract elements in volunteer service through digital means such as film and television, modeling and virtualization, so that people can feel these abstract elements personally.
From a dialectical point of view, the distinction between entity elements and abstract elements of voluntary service system is relatively clear in theory, but they are unified in reality. Entity element is the carrier of abstract element, and abstract element is the core of entity element. In this sense, the digitization of the volunteer service system in the new era is the result of the coordinated development and organic integration of the digitization of entity elements and the digitization of abstract elements.
Digitalization of volunteer service process
The process of voluntary service consists of different links, including demand expression, demand integration, service response, service supply, service supervision and so on. The digitalization of voluntary service process is the digitalization and seamless connection of these specific links.
The first is the digitalization of demand expression. Demand expression is the starting point and forerunner of service. The digitalization of volunteer service demand expression is based on the improvement of digital literacy and skills of volunteer service objects, and the key is the construction of convenient volunteer service digital system. This requires the design of a practical and convenient digital system based on the principle of user-friendliness. For example, users with high digital literacy skills can strengthen the functional integration of the mobile voluntary service digital system and guide them to express their needs through artificial intelligence. However, users with low digital literacy skills, such as the elderly, should use more simple modes such as "one-click voice" and "one-click video" to express their needs.
The second is the digitalization of demand integration. Improve the national volunteer service big data platform and promote the aggregation and integration of fragmented volunteer service demand data. By using digital technologies such as big data and cloud computing, the expressed volunteer service needs are processed and integrated according to regions, fields and objects, and a complete volunteer service demand network is formed, which is dynamically and publicly presented in a digital way, so that the volunteer service demand content can be recognized more comprehensively, clearly and intuitively, thus providing digital support for volunteers, voluntary organizations and government regulators to grasp the volunteer service demand dynamics, participate in volunteer service conveniently and carry out precise supervision.
The third is the digitalization of service response. Optimize the function of the digital system of mobile volunteer service, simplify the operation process, support the volunteer service team to publish volunteer service projects and recruit volunteers based on the mobile terminal, and facilitate volunteers to register, obtain volunteer service information and sign up for volunteer service activities on the mobile terminal anytime and anywhere. Through big data, cloud computing and other digital technologies, the specific data such as professional skills, free time and regional distribution of volunteers and volunteer service teams are compared with service demand data, and volunteers and volunteer service teams are matched and selected to achieve efficient response of volunteer service and accurate docking of supply and demand.
The fourth is the digitalization of service supply. Under the condition of providing volunteer service in the form of team, digital technology can be used in team planning, organization, training and coordination. For example, virtual simulation technology is used to design the organizational structure and simulate the volunteer service process, and the management ability and work efficiency of volunteer service activities are improved with the help of digital cooperation platform to ensure the full participation of volunteers; Build a docking platform for volunteers, volunteer organizations and volunteer service objects, and provide online service channels for individuals or groups with needs and conditions. In the implementation of volunteer activities, sign-in and sign-out are carried out through the mobile terminal, and the accumulated hours of volunteer service are managed online, so that the volunteer service points system with quantifiable, storable and convertible services can really take root.
The fifth is the digitalization of service supervision. On the one hand, relying on the big data platform of volunteer service, we will establish a dynamic supervision system for real-time communication, discussion and feedback among volunteer service objects, volunteers, managers of volunteer organizations, relevant regulatory authorities, news media and other stakeholders, and integrate supervision into all aspects of volunteer service to strengthen supervision after the event; On the other hand, strengthen data security sharing, comprehensively evaluate and supervise the process and results of volunteer service from the dimensions of legality, fairness, economy, efficiency and benefit, reward and encourage outstanding performers, train and supervise ordinary performers, dissuade and even hold accountable those who perform poorly. Through accurate digital supervision, evaluation, encouragement and restraint, the high-quality development of volunteer service can be realized.
Source: China Social Sciences Network-China Social Sciences News
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