Research On The Role Of Chinese Volunteer Organizations In Public Crisis Management

China has begun to enter the crisis-prone period since the 1990s.The frequent public crisis has already become the inevitably social challenges in the process of social management. When facing the great crises, people are used to rely on the national government. In the traditional idea, people have become accustomed to expect and depend on the government after disaster, however, they have ignored such a problem: Not only the government but also the NPO has the duty to help the stricken region. Self -aid is also particularly important in a great disaster.As a matter of fact, government should play a leading role in the process of dealing with critical incidents as a representative of public authority. But as the forms of crises are more and more various, and the reasons for the crisis-induced are more and more complicated. It is difficult to deal with the crisis efficiently, rapidly, harmoniously and flexibly if we just upon the government's efforts. Then we need the help of the third sectors, and one of the important parts of it is volunteer organizations which has incomparable advantages in the process of the crisis management. It can response promptly to the crisis and has the advantage of the information and expertise, it also can provides services effectively and flexibly. Therefore it is the key factor to improve the ability of the government to deal with the crisis with the help of the third department. For example, Chinese volunteer organizations have shown their worth on Wenchuan earthquake. And Chinese State Council has drafted the methods to encourage volunteers to participate in rescue operations and has done some preparation work to recruit, organize and train them, all of which has been set in disaster management in 2006.Chinese volunteer organizations have made great progress and assisted the government in many areas, also they have become one of the important part in the process of management in our country .Especially they have done a great job in Wenchuan earthquake: they supplied manpower, material resources and spiritually aid to the stricken region. These have shown high morality spirit, the social responsibilities and volunteer culture. Inspired the successful job, we should pay more attention to the shortcomings of the volunteer organizations and try our best to better the service of volunteer organizations. Therefore it is urgently to seek for the effective mechanism that supports the volunteer organizations playing a role in crisis management. We should make a very clear explanation that the volunteer associations should exist, and then give a correct position to this kind of organization before we discuss how the volunteer organizations play a role in public crisis management. Therefore, first we should analyze the problems and reasons that present volunteer organizations exist in public crisis management. After that, the paper tries to point out that it is crucial for the government to emphasize and develop the volunteer organizations while government plays a leading role in public crisis management. Only in this way can we promote the construction of the harmonious societyThe full text of the paper is divided into four parts:In the first part, we define the basic concepts such as crisis public crisis and volunteer organization, and the characteristics and the connections between these basic concepts.In the second part, we try to understand why the volunteer organizations should definitely play a role in public crisis management. First we talk about the theoretical foundation - civil society. The theory of civil society holds the opinion that we can resolve the public crisis more effectively in the process of crisis management by the cooperation and interaction between government and the social organizations. The government is not only the single body of govern. The government should emphasize the volunteer organizations which have many incomparable superiority compared with government and other associations. Taking Wenchuan earthquake as an example, from this great disaster, we are aware of how importantly a volunteer organization should appear when they needed.The third part is "present situation of volunteer organizations and problems when they participate in the crisis management." Chinese crisis management have made great progress after decades of development, however it is undeniable that there are still many problems existed, such as: lack of policy support and legal protection, the inertia of people's thought and they are still depending on government's help after the crisis happen, lack of recognition and relative management mechanism, all of which hinder the development and growth of volunteer organizations. Besides, financial problems are also a inevitably thing for the management of the volunteer organizations. These are the limits for the development of volunteer organizations in crisis management. At the same time, the shortage of volunteers' effective training and incentive mechanism research will prevent some volunteers from participating in crisis management with high enthusiasm.The paper tries to seek for practically resolutions that make the volunteer organizations involved in crisis management effectively. First of all ,we should learn from other countries' successful experience seriously and set up a special service organization. Besides we should manage the volunteer organizations in better ways from law, thought, funds, training, incentive. And the most important thing is the government should make fine environment for them.In the end, we draw the conclusion from the discussion that it is useful for the resolutions of crisis events that we emphasize the role of volunteer organizations in public crisis management; also it is an important and urgent task to improve the serving for China. This paper tries to find out the problems of the present situation of the volunteer organizations, and try to look for the reasons. What's more, we try to find the ways that volunteer organizations play a role effective in crisis management. We can enhance our ability to cope with crisis events by this .However, we know, setting up the service system is a long term journey, it needs time and hard-working. Therefore full preparations for the thought and system are necessary.