To commemorate the start of the third decade of community-building policies, the Ministry of Culture will hold a National Community-Building Conference (全國社區營造會議) comprising 12 regional forums across northern, central, southern, and eastern Taiwan, including three sessions on the outlying islands.
The aggregated feedback and draft strategies from the August and September sessions will then be discussed in a centralized program scheduled for Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. The Ministry of Culture will also release a white paper on Taiwan's community empowerment aspirations.
Community-building policies in Taiwan are entering their third 10-year phase, expanding along multiple axes including culture, landscapes, industry, education, social welfare, and the environment, and from a focus on community to communities, including issues around ethnic diversity, migrant labor, immigration, and gender. Through deliberative democracy, such efforts have begun to see a deeper level of participation.
This National Community-Building Conference is focused on the theme of "Creating Tomorrow's Communities," building on the four main themes of public governance, generational progress, pluralism, and social co-innovation, and aiming to further harness the collective strength of communities for social improvement and spark a revolution in public governance.
The National Community-Building Conference provides platforms for dialogue between the people and their government to foster a shared vision for the future. Through a return to the true spirit of civic participation, public-led action plans and strategies will be developed with an eye toward the next 10, even 20 years of community-building in Taiwan. Once the conference has concluded, a white paper will be written up to summarize the results.
The first regional forum is scheduled for Aug. 18 in Yilan, with ten more regional forums taking place in Matsu, Penghu, Taichung, Nantou, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Hsinchu, Kinmen, Hualien, and Taitung through Sept. 29.
‘National Community-Building Conference’