During megacity lockdown, a team of social work practitioners and researchers in Beijing developed a rapid, innovative, Internet-based intervention that provided social-emotional support for participating families through indoor micro-gardening. As COVID-19 continues to restrict in-person interactions and traditional social activities, this type of online social-emotional support and community building should become a major social work method for crisis intervention and service provision.

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Due to the household registration system, millions of rural‐to‐urban migrant children in China are ineligible to receive urban social welfare benefits. These children potentially suffer from the evolving awareness of their perceived inferior social identity and experiences of inequalities at an early stage of life. This study examined whether self‐perceived social identity is related to academic performance and peer relations among rural‐to‐urban migrant children in Beijing. Data were collected from 136 children during 2013 and 2014 in three schools for migrant children in Beijing. Path analysis showed that children who identified as a Beijinger, compared with those who self‐identified with their rural hometown, had better self‐efficacy, which in turn was associated with better academic performance and better peer relations. Enlightened by Western theories, these findings suggest that migrant children’s performance in school could be enhanced by cultivating positive perceptions of their social identity through teachers’ practice and community‐ and policy‐level social support.

Previous studies have indicated that neighborhood disorganization affects child-rearing beliefs in the United States, but few studies have focused on such influences among Asian American parents. Largely due to Asian American parents' immigration experiences, neighborhood disorganization factors inevitably intersect with their traditional cultures, which may lead to different patterns in their parental beliefs. Using structural equation modeling, this study found that neighborhood disorganization factors directly influenced Asian American parents' beliefs toward physical punishment and parenting stress mediated this relationship. These findings suggest that the integration of family and neighborhood-level practices in social services may reduce the risk of physical abuse.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has motivated social workers to reckon with and transform traditions in service delivery. The development, application, and evaluation of technology-enhanced practices have become more vital than ever. Garden on the Balcony (GOB) was an innovative internet-based social work service designed to respond rapidly to the COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing. This paper introduces the underlying perspectives and design of GOB and reports participants’ reflections on the program to understand its mechanisms and implications. Interview data from GOB participants were collected 4 months after the program ended. Thematic analysis generated three major themes, suggesting that GOB had (a) promoted individual resilience and family cohesion; (b) built online and offline community bonds; and (c) cultivated a green lifestyle and spiritual reflection on life. This study demonstrates a practical example of the effective use of technology-enhanced practice.