Training base for 'grassroots prime ministers'
Party chiefs of neighborhood committees share their experiences at a Caoyang Community forum
Shanghai's first training center for Party secretaries of neighborhood committees, known as the "community prime ministers," was unveiled in the Caoyang Community in Putuo District on Friday.
The Innovation and Practice Base aims to improve the social governance capabilities of the grassroots Party chiefs with lectures from community officials and case studies of all kinds of community issues.
The center was unveiled at the first forum held among local community officials on Friday. Award-winning community workers shared their experiences on how to serve the people and create harmonious neighborhoods.
In China, all urban communities have neighborhood committees that serve as the grassroots arm of authority.
Their importance came into sharp focus in Shanghai during the transition to citywide garbage sorting and recycling earlier last year. More recently, they played a dominant role in enforcing health and safety rules during the pandemic.
A visitor tries an interactive game at the newly unveiled training center for community chiefs.
Shanghai's first neighborhood committee was established in 1949 at the Baoxingli community in Huangpu District. Currently, the city has 4,621 neighborhood committee Party chiefs, 62 percent of them women, according to training center data.
The average age of the community chiefs is 44.6 years. About 95 percent of them have college degrees or above.
The Party chiefs are mainly recruited from outstanding community workers, social recruitment or assigned by the authorities.
Nine community chiefs, including Zhu Guoping, Party secretary of the Hongchu neighborhood committee in Changning, were appointed tutors at the training base.
Experiences on common community issues, covering housing renovation, elevator installation, parking arrangements and property management are shared at the center.
The community governance experiences at the Caoyang Community, known as China's first workers' community built in 1950s, will be showcased during the Shanghai Urban Space Art Season 2021, from September 25 to the end of November.
Cartoon figures depicting community workers on display at the center.
