Vanke Foundation adopts a work approach of "research - pilot - empowerment - advocacy". For five years of strategic planning, it has successively carried out the series of programs including "Community Builder Support Program", "Star Program", "Planet Program" and "Brick Action" and supported capacity building of grassroots backbone and social organizations in the field of sustainable community construction. The frontline social organizations have encountered different challenges and development bottlenecks with specific needs during different development phases. The Foundation is in urgent need for clear identification and precise response.
5 Regional support networks
Star and Planet Partner Program have directly served over 118 communities
In 2022, Planet Partner Program and Star Partner Program supported partner organizations to establish five regional support networks in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Circum-Bohai Sea Region, Northwest, and Southwest regions. Over 390 organizations (including community self-organization) were supported within the region. In addition to internal business exchange and learning, some networks also provided technical support to multiple social organizations and government departments in the region. Up to now, Star and Planet Partner Program have directly served over 118 communities and 61,0000 residents.
Planet Partner Program is dedicated to supporting the work strategy of Vanke Foundation, and practicing partner building and related ecological construction in various regions across the country. By adhering to the topic of "sustainable communities", and by providing newly established social organizations with limited project funding support and systematic empowerment, it helps social organizations explore and practice sustainable community issues in communities, and supports the social organizations to develop core business of communities and build backbone teams, playing a long-standing and effective role in promoting sustainable communities.
As of December 2022, the Program has supported a total of 22 organizations to form a "planet partner network" (including 17 planet partner organizations) in 13 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country. Statistically, planet partner organizations continued to carry out sustainable community themed activities in 21 communities across the country in 2022, serving over 40,000 community residents. The project team has gradually constructed and improved the planet partner identification and cultivation mechanism from the "planet student observation period" to the "planet partner critical period" to the "planet partner breakthrough period". Meanwhile, it organizes online and offline community activities, and actively promotes learning and communication within and outside the planet community to enhance cohesion and influence on sustainable issues.
Star Partner Program focuses on supporting Vanke Foundation's work strategy across the country through partner construction and related ecological issues. By upholding the topic of "sustainable communities", it aims to cultivate regional topic leadership organizations. As of now, the Program has supported a total of 29 organizations to establish "Star Partner Network" (including 17 star partner organizations) in 20 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country.
In 2022, five organizations including Beijing A Niu Public Welfare, Qingdao You and Me, and Shanghai Dayu Building reached the standard of "Star Program Phase I Partners" after being assessed on partner leadership literacy, organizational literacy, business literacy, and matching degree. Nine organizations from eight provinces across China, including Shaanxi Green Source and Nanning Sustainable Living were promoted as "Star Program Phase II Partners". According to statistics, Star Partner Program currently directly serves over 100 communities, over 40,000 families, over 570,000 people, supports 356 organizations (including community self-organization), indirectly serves over 200 communities, and over 250,000 people.
The Program supports establishing five regional support networks in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Circum-Bohai Sea Region Northwest and Southwest regions, and provides technical support to multiple social organizations and government departments in the region. That being said, the project team has produced 5 episodes of "Twinkling Stars" podcasts, further exported the community value through the systematic empowerment system in the "Brick Action - Planet Program - Star Program" sustainable community field (large perspective) and the partners’ actions for breakthroughs in the Star Partner Program (small perspective), and simultaneously promoted related dissemination. Furthermore, the "accompanying observation" mechanism before formal funding has been imported and used by industry empowerment projects such as Jingcaotongxing, Ginkgo Fellow Program, and Linglong Program.
In 2022, Vanke Foundation also actively took effective measures by involving five social organizations in sustainable community environmental construction and improving the effectiveness of community governance, and further exerted an influence on the public welfare ecology of community waste management by focusing on key regions and topic areas.
Through multi-party collaboration, Vanke Foundation, as a social charity force, provided resources, supported hub platforms to assist social work and issues, and helped social service agencies and community social organizations to call on more community volunteers. On the community's governance platform, it focused on providing community livelihood services, such as garbage classification, reduction, and environmental protection, achieving great progress. Green Empowerment Program held a “Project Experience Exchange Meeting and ‘Linkage of Five Social Organizations’ Forum to Promote Sustainable Community Environment Construction”, which was highly admitted by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Beijing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau. Green Empowerment Program issued Research Report on the Status Quo of Sustainable Construction of Shenzhen Community Environment, and the press conference and related information of the Program were reported by the China Community Daily under the supervision of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
Vanke Foundation supported Beijing Woqi Foundation to research and compile the Social Organization Industry Scan Report on Domestic Waste Issues, which was released at the 4th Community Waste Management Forum. The report comprehensively presented the development status, challenges, and needs of social organizations, with the purpose of further building a "strong public welfare ecosystem" and helping waste management achieve continuous good results. The report has received in-depth coverage from China Environmental News.
In Beijing, with the core support of hub partner organizations (Beijing Woqi Foundation and He Yi Institute) and the Star Partner (Beijing A Niu Public Welfare) in Beijing, and with the professional support of Beijing collaborators in social work, Vanke Foundation assisted the social work partners of the Green Empowerment Program in improving their professional abilities in garbage classification and reduction.
In Shenzhen, the partner Shenzhen Social Work College has created a "Green Benefit Program" training program column at the "Social Work Course", introducing the practice cases of Woqi project partners into Shenzhen. Furthermore, the Dandelion Program with Shenzhen characteristics and the practice of community co-built gardens have been incorporated into the curriculum system, and both internal and external efforts have been made to support the green practice of Shenzhen social workers in the community. The Foundation's influence in regional issues has been further expanded.
2022 Public Policy Advocacy Capacity Building Program
Since 2020, Vanke Foundation has supported its partner CECA to hold a "Public Policy Advocacy Capacity Building Program" for social organizations for three consecutive years. The Program carefully sorted out and transformed the policy research methods, advocacy paths, knowledge framework of CECA over the years, drew excellent industry experience, and successively empowered 57 social organizations nationwide with methods and capabilities through the empowerment process of "workshops - in-depth consultation - online sparring - participation in the proposals of the two sessions". The partners have gradually formed a symbiotic and collaborative relationship, and jointly enriched the content and methods of social organization policy advocacy capacity building. A total of 20 proposals have been submitted to the two sessions at the national, provincial, and urban level through representative committee members; More and more partners also hope to pass on their achievements to more organizations and partners in the industry.
Xi Rang Scholars Support Program
In order to expand and enhance the research perspective and influence of household waste management in the field of humanities and social sciences, and cultivate young scholars/researchers in the field of waste management, Vanke Foundation, Institute of Sociology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Beijing Woqi Foundation jointly launched the "Xi Rang Scholars Support Program" in 2021. The first Xi Rang Scholars Support Program supported a total of 10 scholars. The research topics covered garbage management, food waste, beach waste, recycling of waste textiles, participation of social organizations in garbage classification, and composting in urban, rural, and ethnic minority areas./p>
After nearly a year of research, all 10 scholars have completed their research and reports, which have all passed the evaluation of the project expert committee and 5 external experts (from government departments, social organizations, etc.), and successfully completed the project report. Among them, 9 scholars disseminated their research results through academic journals and media, with 16 published research results, such as the Journal of Poyang Lake, Guangming Daily, and The News, which enhanced the influence of research results, provided reference for decision-makers, and bridged the gap between academic research and public communication.
In order to continuously attract more scholars to conduct in-depth research on household waste from the perspective of social sciences and humanities, the second phase of the "Xi Rang Scholars Support Program" was launched in 2022. It continued to promote and strengthen in-depth research and knowledge output from multiple perspectives on household waste issues, providing better reference for public participation and decision-making.
In July 2018, Vanke Foundation and Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau of Shenzhen Municipality jointly launched the garbage classification "Dandelion Program" to achieve in-depth cooperation in four aspects: community garbage classification, public advocacy, empowerment, and policy advocacy. It has explored, promoted and applied feasible models for the source classification of urban household waste in Shenzhen by drawing on successful cases. Over the past four years, the Dandelion Program has formed two series of projects for public education - Dandelion volunteer lecturers and school education - Dandelion teacher training.
Planet Partner Program is dedicated to supporting the work strategy of Vanke Foundation, and practicing partner building and related ecological construction in various regions across the country. By adhering to the topic of "sustainable communities", and by providing newly established social organizations with limited project funding support and systematic empowerment, it helps social organizations explore and practice sustainable community issues in communities, and supports the social organizations to develop core business of communities and build backbone teams, playing a long-standing and effective role in promoting sustainable communities.
As of December 2022, the Program has supported a total of 22 organizations to form a "planet partner network" (including 17 planet partner organizations) in 13 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country. Statistically, planet partner organizations continued to carry out sustainable community themed activities in 21 communities across the country in 2022, serving over 40,000 community residents. The project team has gradually constructed and improved the planet partner identification and cultivation mechanism from the "planet student observation period" to the "planet partner critical period" to the "planet partner breakthrough period". Meanwhile, it organizes online and offline community activities, and actively promotes learning and communication within and outside the planet community to enhance cohesion and influence on sustainable issues.
Star Partner Program focuses on supporting Vanke Foundation's work strategy across the country through partner construction and related ecological issues. By upholding the topic of "sustainable communities", it aims to cultivate regional topic leadership organizations. As of now, the Program has supported a total of 29 organizations to establish "Star Partner Network" (including 17 star partner organizations) in 20 provinces, cities, and autonomous regions across the country.
In 2022, five organizations including Beijing A Niu Public Welfare, Qingdao You and Me, and Shanghai Dayu Building reached the standard of "Star Program Phase I Partners" after being assessed on partner leadership literacy, organizational literacy, business literacy, and matching degree. Nine organizations from eight provinces across China, including Shaanxi Green Source and Nanning Sustainable Living were promoted as "Star Program Phase II Partners". According to statistics, Star Partner Program currently directly serves over 100 communities, over 40,000 families, over 570,000 people, supports 356 organizations (including community self-organization), indirectly serves over 200 communities, and over 250,000 people.
The Program supports establishing five regional support networks in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Circum-Bohai Sea Region Northwest and Southwest regions, and provides technical support to multiple social organizations and government departments in the region. That being said, the project team has produced 5 episodes of "Twinkling Stars" podcasts, further exported the community value through the systematic empowerment system in the "Brick Action - Planet Program - Star Program" sustainable community field (large perspective) and the partners’ actions for breakthroughs in the Star Partner Program (small perspective), and simultaneously promoted related dissemination. Furthermore, the "accompanying observation" mechanism before formal funding has been imported and used by industry empowerment projects such as Jingcaotongxing, Ginkgo Fellow Program, and Linglong Program.
Carried out a total of 178 activities
Served 8,041 people
Raised a total of 416,900 yuan
By applying the concept and techniques of public welfare venture capital, Ivy Action selects and empowers cutting-edge public welfare projects with development potential that focus on ecological and environmental protection, and creates environmental protection public welfare projects that can be demonstrated and promoted, becoming a new force in assisting the ecological civilization construction of urban agglomeration in the Pearl River Delta.
The project was implemented in three parts: solicitation, selection, and empowerment. The solicitation was initiated in March 2022, and a total of 108 project applications were received from 98 institutions in 6 provinces and 17 cities across the country. Through the three-level evaluation activity of "Finalist Competition - Promotion Competition - Final Competition", 10 funded projects were ultimately solicited and empowered. 10 projects were distributed in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Huizhou, Huidong, Dongguan, Jiangmen, Foshan, etc. As of December 2022, 10 projects have carried out a total of 178 activities, served 8,041 people, and raised a total of 416,900 yuan.
In 2022, we funded a total of 10 community development projects and collaborated with 10 partners. The projects covered 10 cities and counties in 6 provinces across the country, and over 36,530 person-times of the projects were directly benefited. The work of rural revitalization and education support has beautified the living environment of the community, effectively activated the space and cultural resources of rural communities, and cultivated a group of local forces that can continuously respond to the diversified needs of community development. We explored a warm and sustainable rural community development path.
Through close collaboration with partners such as Vanke Group, we have explored a working model in which social organizations and enterprises work together to promote rural revitalization within the village, achieving "1+1>2". Since 2019, Vanke Foundation has started to upgrade hardware in Vanke Group, and collaborate with multiple partners to empower local forces to exploit community space and cultural resources in Xiapu Village in Lufeng City and Xiankeng Village in Heyuan City, Guangdong Province. Thus the local forces can continuously respond to the diversified development needs of local communities in an environmentally friendly manner by taking the community environment as the starting point.
In 2022, in Xiapu Village, Lufeng City, Guangdong Province, the project formed the Women Love Service Team composed of five core members, whom gradually grew into the backbone of sustainable community environment and cultural construction. They led villagers to practice garbage classification and reduction in the village, created children's education spaces, imported natural education and traditional customs and culture and supported Xiapu Village in exploring its own rural revitalization path in all dimensions.
The "Red Tourism+Green Development" model in Xiapu Village has received attention and support from the local township-level government, and was being promoted to surrounding villages. The story of Xiapu Women Love Service Team, Believe in Sustainable Power between Mountains and Seas" was also showcased at the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) as a case study of Asian women's efforts to address climate change.
In 2022, in Xiankeng Village, Heyuan City, Guangdong Province, the community volunteer team had 10 core members and 24 volunteers. By organizing various activities such as garbage classification, kitchen waste composting, and zero waste party, the participation rate and accuracy rate of garbage classification in the village were increased to 66.3% and 49.4% respectively. 3,802.9kg of kitchen waste was recycled and utilized as resources. Meanwhile, taking schools, ancient buildings, and libraries as carriers, the program created a learning space for villagers, carried out environmental protection and cultural heritage activities, and gradually formed a clean, warm, and mutually supportive community environment and village atmosphere. Leaders at all levels of Guangdong Province have visited Xiankeng Village multiple times to conduct research and fully recognized the various progress made by the village. In 2022, Xiankeng Village was selected as one of the "first batch of characteristic villages for rural research and travel in Guangdong Province".
In response to the rural revitalization policy, it has explored rural revitalization action paths from the perspective of environmental sustainability within the town and obtained partial results. Vanke Foundation, in collaboration with multiple partners, entered into the communities and schools of Jiulong Town, Deyang City, Sichuan Province. By building environmental education space, exploring and cultivating local forces, and carrying out environmental education activities, it has linked schools and communities to jointly promote sustainable management of household waste.
In 2022, in Jiulong Town, Deyang City, Sichuan Province, it continued to promote the sustainable management of household waste in different communities and schools in Jiulong Town in terms of project depth and breadth. By sorting and sharing case experiences, it promoted more exploration of township waste classification with the Jiulong Town's experience.
As of November 2022, the program has built a multi-functional environmental education base for local youth and community residents to carry out environmental education, effectively integrating communities, schools, judicial departments and other public institutions to support the daily operation of the base. In terms of community waste classification, the pilot community Zundao Community achieved normalized operation of waste classification, and recycled 113.15 tons of kitchen waste. In terms of community team and system construction, Zundao Community established a team of garbage classification instructors, and Wenfeng Village established a set of garbage classification volunteer service system to ensure the orderly progress of garbage classification work in the village. In terms of zero waste campus construction, the project team collaborated with Zundao School to create zero-waste campus and optimize and upgrade the recycling system, and developed a set of environmental education courses, integrating disciplines and hot topics such as zero-waste campus, biodiversity, food education, and carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. By reviewing and summarizing the experience of zero-waste campus construction in Zundao School, the project team assisted the school to complete the report titled Practice Green and Low Carbon, “Zero-Waste” Makes the Campus Better - A Record of the Construction of “Zero-Waste School” in Zundao School, Mianzhu City and publish it in the journal Environmental Education. The program also submitted to the Mianzhu Education Bureau a report material titled Double Reduction for Development, Comprehensive Practice for Education centered on zero-waste campus construction actions.
Education revitalization lays a solid foundation of rural education development, and provides solid support for promoting high-quality development of rural education. Vanke Foundation are concerned with the education development of Zundao School in Sichuan Province, Zhenfeng County in Guizhou Province, and Yongshun County in Hunan Province. By "consolidating the foundation and enhancing art," it helps to revitalize rural education and expand the coverage of high-quality education resources.
In 2008, Wenchuan earthquake severely damaged Zundao School and destroyed its buildings. In the same year, Vanke Group assisted in constructing buildings of Zundao School with a 9-degree fortification, fully ensuring the safety and convenience of teachers and students.
For thirteen years since 2008, with the continuous support of Vanke Group and Vanke Foundation, Zundao School has gradually grown from an unknown rural primary school to a shining star in Deyang. The school has won dozens of honors, such as "Experimental School of Teaching Research and Reform of the National Institute of Education Sciences", "Exemplary Education Research Unit of Chinese Education Research Society", and "The First Batch of Civilized Campuses in Sichuan Province". Zundao School has also achieved remarkable teaching performance. Zundao School achieved a new historical high in the 2020 high school entrance examination, and the admission rate of Mianzhu Middle School and Nanxuan Middle School in Sichuan Province reached 61%, an increase of 7 percentage points compared to 2019, ranking among the top in Deyang City.
Since 2018, Vanke Foundation has supported the Chengdu Roots and Shoots Environmental Culture Exchange Center to launch a sustainable management system for campus waste and hardware support. It has also carried out several waste reduction and classification work at Zundao School, consequently teachers and students have developed basic environmental awareness and taken waste reduction and classification action.
In 2022, we continued to focus on the "Educating Five Domains Simultaneously" program at Zundao School, and collaborated with the Green & Shine Foundation to carry out the "Shine" art class; Provided online painting courses to help teachers and students understand and learn diversified painting concepts, knowledge, and skills, and enrich their artistic experience; Organized schools and local music teachers in Mianzhu to carry out music summer camps, and led students to learn small wind instruments such as ocarina, clarinet, and bawu, and experience various artistic forms such as vocal music and dance.
In order to pay attention to and support the professional development, physical and mental health, and professional cognition of rural teachers, and to promote rural education by donating teaching facilities and promoting relevant teaching practices, Vanke Foundation launched the "Vanke • Green & Shine Rural Education Support" program in 2016. Over the past six years, a total of 15.38 million yuan has been invested in a series of projects such as Green & Shine Bookstore, Green & Shine Science Class, and Green & Shine Rural Teacher Support in Zhenfeng County, Guizhou Province, directly benefiting over 128,000 rural teachers and students.
In 2022, the Yongshun County Rural Education Support Program in Hunan Province was launched. It aimed to help improve the county rural education environment and fully stimulate the vitality of county rural education within a four-year (2022-2025) period. As of the end of 2022, a total of 40 bookstores have been built in Yongshun County, with a total of 124,340 books donated and over 1,000 boxes of scientific experiment toolboxes donated to 28 schools. Three offline training sessions have been conducted for county principals, reading and science teachers, and a total of 178 rural principals and teachers have received relevant professional training. Health care funds or scholarships were provided to 73 teachers or their children, benefiting a total of 73,447 rural teachers and students.
Vanke Foundation, in collaboration with Xinjiang University, promotes the construction of ecological civilization in Xinjiang. It aims to cultivate ecological and social work talents in Xinjiang University, as well as outstanding talents in the field of ecological protection and sustainable community development in the northwest border area, promote the sustainable development of ecological protection in Xinjiang, and involve multi-party participation in the field of ecological protection and sustainable development.
In 2022, the project team conducted a series of special lectures to give teachers and students an insight into the theoretical frontiers and practices of ecological and social work, and held two lectures on "Ecological Practice is All Around"; Held three lectures on "Frontiers of Ecological and Social Work"; Supported Xinjiang University to establish a comprehensive training plan and curriculum system for the ecological and social work major, fully reflected in the 2022 Xinjiang University Social Work Graduate Training Plan; introduced off-campus resources and case resources, and organized students to visit local ecological and environmental protection organizations online in the "Ecological and Social Work and Practice" course, achieving good teaching results.
The project focuses on the construction of ecological civilization. Starting from September 2022, it continued to hold special ecological civilization reading club activities to enhance students' professional recognition. The project funded a student to practice ecological and social work in pastoral areas. The said student participated in the China University Ecological Civilization Education Innovation and Creativity Competition with practical cases, and was selected for the next round of competition and won the contest award. The project also funded two students to participate in a co-education camp for rural ecological civilization construction at the Conghua District Deepening Social Work Service Center in Guangzhou, and lent a hand in compiling and revising the initial draft in the first part of the Research on Individual Oral History of Xinjiang Ecological and Environmental Protection Social Organizations.