Even five years ago it would have been inconceivable; but, with the effective involvement of social organizations in the community governance, Yanji Subdistrict in Shanghai’s Yangpu District, a community with nearly 90,000 residents, has gained vigor and vitality in community life, and has become a front-runner in the municipal government’s campaign titled with Innovating Social Governance and Strengthening the Authority on Community Levels.

Having won a lot of applause, the successful operations have also inspired the municipal policy makers to formulate new strategies on community governance and the proved experience is likely to be extended in the municipality.

When looking back, Yanji Sicun, a residential area of the Yanji Sub-district, would impress the new comers with gloom rather than delight to any extent: old fashioned apartments, crowded living space, and a 1,300-square-meter shabby room encased with iron sheet standing stubbornly in the center of apartment buildings.

Serving as an office for the neighborhood committee, the shabby room is along with a warehouse, a gas cooker shop and a private garment factory, which is the typical picture of a community in China’s planned economy period.

In 2009, two decades after the community was built, the residents living here have every reason to complain about: the warehouse can never be said of pretty or safe, worse still, the garment factory arrogantly pollutes the environment, and all these have fueled the lasting tension among the residents.

A satisfaction survey on the urban appearance and environment carried out in 2008 suggested that the Yanji Sicun was the least popular community in the center urban area.

The year 2009, a pivotal period for the municipality to speed up its preparations for the Expo 2010, also marked the start of changing the embarrassing situation in the Yanji Sicun.

The idea of establishing a neighbourhood center came into being after the Neighbourhood Committee staff acquiring inspirations from Singapore’s neighbourhood centers, which neatly arrange the public space and facilitating service sectors in modern communities. To give full play to the new neighborhood, the authority of Yanji decided to purchase services from social organizations, which would operate the neighbourhood center with professional concepts, methods and skills in community service.

However, the plans encountered some unexpected challenges in its implementation.

The first challenge concerns making space for the neighborhood center. Unlike those in Singapore, which are mainly located along the street, the neighborhood center to be launched in the Yanji Sicun was finally arranged within the community, where public space was poorly utilized with unnecessary functions.

“But it was still tough task to take back the rights to use such public space due to conflict of interests. There were stories worthy of telling behind the efforts of making each single inch of the space,” recalled Zuo Weidong, the then office director of the Yanji Subdistrict.

The second challenge concerns the residents’ attitudes toward the intervention of social organizations in community governance.

The first neighbourhood center within the Yanji Subdistrict was entrusted to Shanghai Enrichment Community Service Center, a non-profit social organization dedicated in offering public services to communities. When the SECSC staff began their investigations on the residents’ demands for community services, some residents felt something fresh: in the past, the public activities they were familiar with were really stereotyped and boring, and few people showed interest in engaging in the community governance.

Yet, there were bewilderments and even suspicions over the involvement of social organizations in the community governance.

Many residents have been used to turning to the neighborhood committee when they encountered troubles in daily life, and the intervention of outsiders in such affairs is likely to embarrass them.

Some staff of the Neighbourhood Committee also showed concerns: how come the neighborhood committee should be replaced by social organizations in handling the community governance?

Based on preliminary investigations, SECSC redesigned the function sectors of the first neighborhood center and arranged space wisely for each of them, namely dining area, reading room, mini cinema, cybercafe, children’s center and arts exhibition area.

SECSC also launched some specialized programs, including exchange activities for the elderly, care service for the old living alone, life learning program, and health intervention.

Solutions to residents’ demand

The neighborhood center offers perfect solutions to meet the residents’ needs in daily life, and they can get such services in around 10 minutes.

In addition to convenience, another factor gaining popularity for the neighborhood center lies in that the residents are greatly motivated by the mechanisms of conducting community governance. SECSC has wonderfully handled its relationship with the neighborhood committees and residents.

The neighborhood committees are now purchasers, directors and supervisors of the community services provided by social organizations like SECSC, which focus on designing and carrying out various service programs based on the residents’ demands, and the residents are encouraged to engage in public life with the most initiative.

For instance, when a new neighborhood center is established, the community service provider will instruct the residents to set up a self-management committee, the members of which are residents in the community.

The chairman of the committee will be selected among competitors through contests capable of examining their capabilities in activity organization, and retired workers with rich management experience usually stand out in such contests with better performance in terms of responsibility, creativity and executive power.

Other members of the self-management committee are usually leaders of certain groups of people sharing common interests in operas, calligraphy, dance or chess, name only a few.

Thus, the self-management committee is responsible for handling almost all the affairs of the neighborhood center through regular meetings, while social organizations are playing a supporting role, enabling the neighborhood committee to focus on administrative matters.

Since the enthusiasm of residents is aroused, they play a significant role in solving problems concerning the public interest in the community.

“We once advocated the residents who raise pet dogs to be aware of the public environment in the community,” said one staff of the neighborhood committee, “and the leaders of some groups helped us a lot in the publicity with their influence among other residents.”

The staff of the neighborhood committees who once opposed the interventions of social organizations also changed mind after an array of vigorous operations being on track.

“When it comes to organizing activities, the social organizations really do a better job than the neighborhood committee,” said Yang Ling, a staff of the neighborhood committee.

Today there are four neighborhood centers in operation in the 17 communities under the Yanji Subdistrict, and the residents frequenting these centers are increasing sharply.

Data suggests that on average each center serves over 50,000 visits of the residents annually.

“All visitors come to the neighborhood center to fulfill their demands in sharing emotions or maintaining social contacts,” said Qiu Hong, an official in the Yanji Subdistrict. “They do not only enjoy themselves by singing and dancing here, but also establish and strengthen their social relations with others. That’s the very meaning of public life.”

Center for community health

Xintu Center for Community Health another social organization in charge of one of the four Neighbourhood Centres, is devoted to improving the health care services in communities by promoting the values of health.

Xintu has launched a health care program featuring a network connecting the health consultants and family doctors, which allows the residents to get access to professional medical consulting services by making a phone call.

The center has also kicked off a virtual platform for “smart community” by joining efforts with China Telecom, one of China’s top telecommunication service providers.

The residents will be able to make appointments for their children’s vaccination through APP, which will remind the parents in time and save the trouble of queuing. The data of residents’ blood pressure will also be filed and updated in personal accounts on the platform in real time, so the residents can draw a comparison of such information and get treatment as quickly as possible.

The magic behind the emerging neighborhood centers attributes to the active role played by social organizations in connecting the residents’ demands and social resources.

Social organizations involving in the community governance may release the information on the demands for services in communities through APP, say, WeChat or Microblog, and then some enterprises receiving such information will seek cooperation with social organizations and serve the communities in a win-win model.

For instance, the communities within the Yanji Subdistrict have embraced HSBC China Community Building Programme with the help of a non-profit social organization based in Pudong New Area.

The program brings a fund of 200, 000 yuan (US$32,000) for the community building. Many other enterprises and social associations are also following the suit.