This paper explores the values, current situations, challenges and future developments of the implementation of evidence-based social work. An evidence-based approach would be valuable in promoting the qualities of social work services, improving the recognition of social work in both the professional community and the society at large, and the integration of social work research and practice. However, there are significant challenges in the execution of evidence-based practice, including the executive-led issue, limited time and capacity for social workers, insufficient organizational support, as well as concerns about the use of evidence. The study reveals a lack of understanding of evicence-based social work among both social workers and undergraduate social work students, indicating underdevelopment in this area. To overcome such barriers requires evidence-based education that actively promotes the value and effectiveness of evidence-based practice. An updated curriculum and revised handbooks that incorporates elements of evidence-based practice is also suggested. Additionally, educators in higher education should collaborate with frontline social workers to promote the integration of research and practice.

There is an issue of “same language but different meanings” in both the academic and practice communities of social work in China. A comparative analysis of the concept of “social work” in a reference frame can deepen our understanding of the profession. The concepts of “big social work” and “small social work” not only refer to the differences in the size, content, and external boundaries of social work but also contain the artistic conception of differences in levels of professionalization between each other. Professional social work and non-professional social work reflect the diversity and complexity of social work in terms of knowledge, value, and skills, as well as the differences in the field of social work services. Social work as a practice method and social work as a profession, respectively, highlight their skill attributes and domain attributes. They are closely related to the external boundaries of the objects and content of social work. To use the term of “social work as a practice method” and “social work as a profession” may alleviate the conflict between the external boundaries of “big” and “small” social work in expression, as well as the contradiction between the advantages and disadvantages of “professional” and “non-professional” social work.

The loss of an only child leaves parents grappling with multiple predicaments that exacerbate their spiritual turmoil. This study adopts qualitative research methods, collects data through interviews, and employs the grounded theory to examine the manifestations and causes of the spiritual dilemma of urban parents who have lost their only child. The findings reveal that the spiritual pillars that once upheld them collapsed instantly after the loss of their only child, leading to a pervasive sense of purposelessness, anxiety about “aging without children” and challenges in social integration, all of which significantly impact their spiritual well-being. The study recommends intervention strategies, including redefining the meaning of life for these parents, improving China’s home care services, and promoting the social integration of parents who have lost their only child, in order to help them get out of their spiritual turmoil.

The Student Assistance Program is a comprehensive project service that focuses on meeting the personalized and diversified needs of college students and helping disadvantaged student groups improve their psychosocial abilities. Integrating the concepts and methods of social work into the Student Assistance Program is of great significance to the development of college students and the improvement of the Student Assistance Program. Social work could play vital roles at various levels of the Student Assistance Program. At the micro level, it can use interpersonal communication and empowerment strategies to promote students’ personal development; at the meso level, it focuses on the construction of social capital and community development to enhance students’ social support networks; at the macro level, it focuses on the advocacy and implementation of social welfare policies to improve students’ overall well-being. At present, the Student Assistance Program faces challenges such as a shortage of professionals and limited service reach. In the future, it should emphasize the design of intervention strategies based on local conditions and classification, making full use of the advantages of methods, technologies and policies, and, at the same time, pay attention to Chinese social and cultural traditions to promote the localization and specialization of services.

In social work education, the practice reflexivity of teachers and students has plays a key role in knowledge production. Classrooms serve not only as spaces for knowledge transfer but also as environments for experience reference and knowledge co-creation. The professional relationship holds an important position in the social work knowledge system, forming the foundation of social work practice. By reflexively organizing past experiences of professional relations, teachers provide students with the experience reference and the local knowledge to understand the relationship between themselves, their community, and their future professional community, so as to stimulate students’ motivation to explore professional relationships. At the same time, teachers engage in dialogues with students’ experience texts regarding their inquiry into their relationship with the communities to enhance learning. When students’ community experience is organically integrated into the teaching, the connection between knowledge and teachers and students is strengthened. In this teaching process, students can not only acquire the relevant knowledge and experience of professional relationships but also experience the practical process of integrating personal experience and professional knowledge. This will further promote the organic combination of education, practice, and research, realize the knowledge production function of social work education, and promote the construction of the local knowledge of social work.

“Does social work work?” This question addresses the crucial issue of recognizing the value of social work that the social work community has been striving for over a century. This study conducts a systematic review of service effectiveness reviews in social work literature in English academic publications. Through a scientific search strategy, this article adopts 52 pieces of literature as the sample for analysis. The result suggests that social work effectiveness has undergone the process from being ineffective to partially effective and then to the stage where specific interventions are effective for specific targets in specific contexts. Specifically, current evaluation research in social work suggests new trends and characteristics in terms of situational characteristics, the intervention process, the factors of assessment, and the utilization of results. These findings offer valuable insights for the construction of a productive social work service system in China.

Social service assessment is a performance evaluation method for government-purchased social services, aiming to optimise the quality of social services. In the process of social service assessment, multiple actors are involved, and these actors are all in a specific institutional environment, with their own institutional logics that are changing. Hence, this study situates institutional logics and their evolution at the focal point of analysis. It is found that under the effect of multiple institutional logic changes, social service evaluation will encounter autonomy, publicity dilemma, and credibility dilemmas. To address these challenges, it is crucial to find ways to promote the reproduction of autonomy in social service evaluation, enhance the evaluation control of service users, and reshape the credibility of each evaluation subject.

This study investigages the issues and appeals raised by the public on online government platforms, and the corresponding responses from government officials, creating “issue/appeal-solution” pairs. A total of 2,426 pairs of “issue/appeal-solution” were collected from the East Lake Community of Hubei province, a typical and popular online governance platform. Analysis is conducted with word segmentation, clustering, and co-occurrence network analysis techniques. The study identified the key issues and appeals raised by the public, categorizing them into urban construction, development of the people’s well-being, public security, demolition and land expropriation, road repair, traffic safety, and environment protection. We further present knowledge about the interrelationships among public’s issues and appeals. Similar issues and appeals appear repeatedly. The study proposes a knowledge service based on “issue/appeals-solution responses” pairs, recommending a settled response pattern for similar issues and appeals.

As an important part of the urban built environment, community parks have a vital impact on improving residents’ health. Based on the Web of Science database, the article systematically reviewed the research trends and hotspots of community park and health related international literature using the bibliometric method. The analysis found that: Community parks and health research rose in the early 21st century and has gradually become the focus of preventive medicine, health geography, sociology, environmental psychology, urban planning, landscape architecture and other disciplines, with a steady growth of literature; The health benefits of community parks cover physical health, mental health and social health. The research hotspots focus on five aspects: physical activity, mental healing, ecosystem services, social interaction and the impact on health benefits; In recent years, the balanced layout and reasonable allocation of community park green space have become a hot topic in the research on residents’ health improvement and urban space environment optimization.

Community philanthropy refers to voluntary philanthropic actions undertaken by citizens, legal persons and organizations in local communities through asset donations or voluntary services for philanthropic purposes. The aim is to improve the quality of community life, governance capabilities, and community development. Influenced by both philanthropic traditions and modern philanthropy, community philanthropy displays different patterns in government promotions and grassroots practices. The continuous development of community philanthropy could be reinforced in the following aspects. First, there should be continued socialization reform of hub-type charitable organizations such as community foundations and charity federations. Second, there should be innovations in regulations for nurturing and managing community philanthropy entities, such as charitable organizations and charitable funds. Third, focus is needed on establishing carriers for community philanthropy and supporting the construction of community service entities. In addition, it is important to encourage Internet public fundraising service providers to optimize Internet fundraising support systems for community philanthropy based on urban and rural scenarios. Lastly, it is also essential to promote community charitable trusts to boost permanent charitable assets, and optimize the constitution of community charitable assets.