Drawing upon a sample of 296 new immigrant women in Hong Kong, this study investigated how social service utilization, family functioning, and sense of community influenced the depressive symptoms of new immigrant women. Results of the structural equation modeling suggested that family functioning and sense of community were both significantly and negatively associated with the depression of new immigrant women. Utilization of community services also influenced the depression of immigrant women indirectly through the mediating effect of sense of community. Implications of the research findings for mental health intervention were discussed.

This study examined (1) the ethnicity and language similarity between professional staff and service users, and (2) client satisfaction in ethnic-specific services (ESS) agencies serving Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). A combined method of agency survey and focus groups was used to collect the data. Findings indicate that ESS served a diverse AAPI population, although some ethnic and language sub-groups remain to be under served. Service users clearly prefer ESS, which is associated with a higher level of trust than mainstream services. However, staff simply sharing similar language or ethnic background does not automatically warrant trust. Trust is developed through a sense of respect that staff demonstrates within a cultural context. The feeling of trust is likely to determine AAPI clients' commitment to remain in treatment, a prior condition for achieving any desirable outcome. © 2003 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

In 2020, China eliminated absolute poverty, one of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Guizhou, a historically low GDP province, has been recognized as a successful case under the Chinese government’s poverty alleviation initiative in the big data era. Guizhou demonstrates how the Chinese government piloted an innovative, industry-led, eco-friendly agenda for targeted poverty alleviation. In this chapter, we start by outlining a pilot poverty alleviation model aligning with the Chinese government’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025). Then we illustrate the blueprint for Guizhou as the first pilot area (“Guizhou Poverty Alleviation Cloud") to break the information and logistic barriers between the economic, housing, education, and health departments, nationally and internationally. We use a community-driven, grassroots case study of Anlong village in Guizhou to describe how the innovation of social media, technology, eco-friendly products (i.e., Shihu,), and locally owned small business has built up a sustainable poverty alleviation system. We finish the discussion with the hope of shedding light on future innovation in poverty alleviation initiatives that integrate the implementation of multiple UN SDGs. In particular, we propose integrating the “Social +" infrastructure into the existing poverty alleviation model.

Little is known about how professional social work education affects students' view on the social work mission. Using a secondary analysis of larger longitudinal data collected from masters in social work (MSW) students in California, USA, this study sought to explore the relationship among the students' demographic characteristics, their primary reasons for pursuing an MSW degree, and their view on the mission of social work at the time of entering an MSW program, whether the students' view on the mission of social work changed in the course of an MSW education, and factors contributing to a change of MSW students' view on the social work mission-individual adaptation vs societal change-between the beginning and the end of the MSW program. The results showed that students' degree of social action involvement, type of field practicum, and ideological variables predicted students' view changes or adherence between entering the MSW program and graduating. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Most of the attention in the last few decades in the human services field has been on the development of culturally competent practice with little attention to the context of this practice. This analysis and case study focuses on the organizational context of social service practitioners seeking to respond effectively to an increasingly diverse client population. Specific attention is given to the development of a working definition of a culturally responsive social service agency. This definition is used to assess a case study of a public sector county social service agency that has a substantial history in promoting culturally responsive practices. The implications for future management practices are noted in the conclusion. © 2008 The Haworth Press.

The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act (PRWORA) of 1996 has major implications for low-income Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) populations. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the research currently examining the impact of welfare reform on AAPI recipients and the welfare-to-work services available to this population. This article highlights AAPI participation and their timing-out rates in California’s CalWORKs program and their barriers to transitioning to work. Four welfare-to-work program models and recommendations are presented to illustrate strategies that can be used to address the unique needs of AAPI in order to alleviate their high risk for timing-out: one-stop-shops, transitional jobs programs, providing comprehensive and family focused services, and additional research and evaluation of programs specific to assisting the AAPI population on CalWORKs.

Social innovation has increasingly become a hot topic in China, a process in which multiple sectors collaborate with each other, aiming to change the status quo through creative, effective, efficient and sustainable ways. InterBoxes is an innovative project in the form of a social enterprise that commits to improving physical school conditions by building libraries, classrooms, schools and dormitories with refurbished cargo shipping containers called “Boxes”. Within the scope of this project the word “Inter” signifies that each Box is equipped with an Internet connection to the outside world. Conceptually, as a social enterprise, the for-profit, business arm of InterBoxes is projected to operate within metropolitan areas, building structures such as cafés, gyms, bookstores, etc., all which will generate revenue to support the nonprofit operation in rural areas. This descriptive case study examines the implementation and use of InterBoxes as a library in a rural primary school and addresses the promises and challenges facing the project. The findings indicate that InterBoxes demonstrates much potential as a social innovation to improve physical school conditions and other rural education issues through the creative use of space and place. Recommendations for scaling up its operation in connection with a larger global network of innovation using shipping containers are discussed.

Rural-to-urban migrants in China face numerous forms of social exclusion. This article argues that community-based approaches offer innovative ways with which to tackle the problems of social exclusion for rural-to-urban migrants, yet these approaches have been neglected. This article first provides an overview of the concept of social exclusion, as developed by Western European scholarship and policy discourse. Next, it examines the ways in which these concepts are relevant to the context of rural-to-urban migrants within China. Finally, this article conceptualizes the social exclusion paradigm from a community practice perspective and offers the implications of this paradigm for community-level interventions.

With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, welfare recipients are faced with new work requirements and sanctions, including a five-year time limit on receiving public assistance. Due to difficulties in adjustment to American society and lack of human capital for the labor market, Asian immigrants and refugees face obstacles transitioning from welfare to work. The majority of individuals in the San Francisco Bay Area who have reached the five-year time limit since January 2003 are of Asian descent. Without adequate welfare-to-work services, restrictions and time limits are leaving many Asian recipients without the proficiencies required for employment, as well as without the cash assistance needed for survival. Using a qualitative study approach by conducting three focus groups with Asian welfare recipients in the San Francisco Bay Area, findings of this study indicate that existing welfare-to-work programs do not meet the unique needs of this population. Their barriers for achieving self-sufficiency are not adequately addressed by welfare reform’s “work first” approach. Instead, findings suggest that welfare-to-work program strategies for this population should incorporate culturally competent support services, human capital development, and strength-based approaches. As more Asian immigrant families lose cash assistance as a result of reaching the five-year time limit, the need to improve welfare-to-work programs and policies for this population has become increasingly urgent.