Maestral International, together with colleagues from the Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC) initiative, global social work experts, and experts from China and neighbouring countries, participated from 30 November to 3 December 2024 in the conference ‘Synthesizing Knowledge: Chinese Social Work Practice Research and its Dialogue with the World’ as well as the subsequent roundtable on ‘Global learning on Implementing the Continuum of Care’ held at Peking University, in Beijing, China.
This conference provided a global platform for discussing learning regarding practical aspects of social work practice and social work research, including the importance of working across disciplines, social work in the context of disasters and addressing grief, action research to strengthen collaboration between institutions, and recent efforts to standardise social work education and recognise equivalence of social work diplomas across ASEAN countries.
The subsequent roundtable focused on critical issues related to children’s care and protection, including the evolution of care reform, the role of social workers in supporting gatekeeping and child placement, transformation of institutions, supporting kinship care, promoting foster care and adoption of children with disabilities.
Both the conference and roundtable provided a well-organized and engaging platform for sharing insights and fostering meaningful dialogue. These events underscored the importance of global collaboration in advancing social work practice and care reform. Looking ahead, the European Association of Schools of Social Work (EASSW) will host a conference on “Contemporary Challenges of Social Connectedness” in Salzburg, Austria, from 23–26 June 2025. More information is available at ecswe2025-salzburg.eu. Maestral looks forward to continuing its engagement with partners to strengthen social service workforce efforts worldwide.