Funded by Beijing ByteDance Public Welfare Foundation and implemented by Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center, China’s capital launched the first part of the “National Demonstrative Minor Protection Social Organization Cultivation Project”. The initiative aims to provide legal services to minors whose rights have been violated.
On June 22, Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center held a seminar on the project to introduce its effectiveness and progress to the public.
“The project is committed to breaking through the ‘last mile’ of implementing the legal system for the protection of minors,” said Tong Lihua, the center’s director.
The center and six social organizations from Guizhou, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hebei, and Jiangsu provinces have launched a Minor Protection Convergence Media Platform by cooperating with relevant local government departments, judicial organs, and various social organizations to promptly provide professional legal, psychological, social work and other services to minors whose rights and interests have been infringed, or that are suspected to have been infringed or put at risk, Tong said.
In order to ensure the standardized and sustainable development of the project, Beijing Children’s Legal Aid and Research Center has issued a “Selection Plan” and a “Professional Consulting Service Guidance Manual” to provide professional support to the selected organizations.
“The project is currently based on a new model of child protection services that focuses on the law with the participation of professionals such as counselors and social workers,” said Yu Xukun, executive director of the center. Four of the six selected social organizations taking part in the project have legal backgrounds, two have social work backgrounds, and each organization needs to have at least five full-time staff, including three lawyers, at least one social worker and one counselor.
