The National Community Development Learning Conference on Community-Based Welfare Presents Colourful Experiences! 

Organized by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), the 2014 National Community Development Learning Conference on Community-Based Welfare was launched at the Taoyuan County Performing Arts Center (TCPAC) on December 16, with community participants from counties and cities all over the country contributing to a brand new visual pleasure and experience for their community partners. 

Director-General of the MOHW’s Department of Social Assistance and Social Work, Lee Mei-Chen, said that this year’s learning conference adopted the theme of showing the vitality of community care from civic groups and demonstrating their multifaceted services, in both dynamic and static displays. For static sectors, ten communities in the Taoyuan County have contributed display boards, video clips, printed materials and actual samples for the five display zones, namely, the Flagship Zone, the Elderly Care Zone, the Child Care Zone, the New Immigrant Zone and the Industrial Zone. The dynamic display features six visit routes, with narrators accompanying community workers to pay field visits in order to learn the current status and vision of implementing community-based welfare; face-to-face communication with local volunteers is also arranged to share the pleasure and difficulties of the services and to consolidate the spirit of community service. 

The highlights of this conference focus on six major perspectives: attentive caring, cultural heritage, health improvement, environmental beautification, security maintenance, and environmental and ecological protection, emphasizing the momentum of community care and attentiveness, and the diversity of services. Six outstanding communities, including Shanjiao and Luzhu communities of Luzhu Township, Yuehmei community of Daxi Township, Lungkang community of Taoyuan City, Gaoyuan community of Longtan Township, and Daan community of Bade City, are selected as examples, fully illustrating the efforts and achievement that Taoyuan county government has invested on community works of healthy aging, community care, community industries, rural regeneration, environmental protection, education and diverse learning, community policing, community green landscaping, and cultural preservation. Through the exchange and learning in this event, it is expected that diverse thinking and creativity in promoting community-based welfare be inspired to inject more vitality and blissful elements into community development in Taiwan. 

Considering that ‘a community’ is an important living field which connects individuals, families, society and the state, the Government therefore enthusiastically promotes community-based welfare, hoping to combine various resources, in the form of community works, to comprehensively and effectively deliver them to disadvantaged groups that need care and attentiveness. Through community residents or volunteers who are willing to dedicate their love and efforts, the tasks of caring for vulnerable populations can be improved in terms of both localization and communitization, in order to reduce the occurrence of social problems and to build a life community of solidarity and mutual support of all community residents. 

Lee Mei-Chen stated that a community is the living field of our daily lives; to create a loving, happy community requires the involvement of all residents. As the community is a platform providing public participation in various social welfare services and mutual assistance, it also displays the prosperity and tenacity of local life and the creativity and vitality of the Taiwan society. It is hoped that the National Community Development Learning Conference on Community-Based Welfare inspires our communities to create a more amazing and splendid future. Also, with the unreserved dedication and contribution of community residents, it is hoped that the community public be motivated to join the rank of community services and create a high-quality, good and safe living environment moving smoothly towards a happy community.