A Study On The Two - Way Dynamic Structure Of Grass - Roots Elderly Association

This paper takes case study on an elderly association in Beijing with in-depth investigation and interview, collecting first-hand materials in order to understand the basic operation conditions of such kinds of organizations.The study finds that grass-root elderly associations do not have strong internal dynamic and rely heavily on government support. They get resource in terms of money under government project management system for routine operation, paying labor forces, and covering the costs of activities, which is not stable, and brings difficulties to the associations. Because only services rather than job positions are purchased by government, the organizations can’t attract specialist and therefor lack the ability for innovation and long term development. The local resource is not effectively employed, makes the association more difficult to provide services. The elderly association on Jiedao level as the case shows should effectively link upward to that on district government level, as well as downward to that on neighborhood level to play a role of incubator for community organizations. It is really a problem to integrate these organizations on different layers. The associations also lack social resource, with only occasional cooperation with some social organizations, which does provide enough resources.The author reasons the causes into several factors including: the association has the traditional value to rely on government, ignores to attract the participation of social organizations; the support from government is not strong enough to support its existence, but only provide project activities resources, making the association difficult to develop.So the author hold that, in order to promote grass-rood elderly associations, duel dynamics are needed both from government and society, with government playing the roles to implement policies effectively, provide resources in terms of funding, field space, and labors. At the same time, grass-root elderly association should take new value to employ local resources more effectively, cooperate with social enterprises, and absorb more resources.