Continuous Development and “Sunshine Project” Promotion (3)

Suggestions on building a sustainable development model for the “Sunshine Project”

To build a sustainable development model for the “Sunshine Project” for community-based drug rehabilitation and recovery in Guizhou, the following efforts should be made for system development and policy supply:

Firstly, further improve the legalization in the development of the “Sunshine Project.” The development of the “Sunshine Project” has gone very well due to the high attention and strong promotion from the leaders of the party committees and governments at all levels. Currently, the project is the work planning of Guizhou Drug Control Commission and an innovation of drug rehabilitation and recovery model, and the law and system reference should be more detailed. Guizhou has a large number of drug addicts. In the coming future, the “Sunshine Project” still has a lot of work to do, and many drug rehabilitation and recovery personnel need to be promoted to integrate into the society through job placement. Therefore, Guizhou Drug Control Commission should comprehensively summarize the experience in the “Sunshine Project,” and formulate local regulations such as the Regulations on the Implementation of the “Sunshine Project” in Guizhou and the Regulations on the Job Placement of Drug Rehabilitation and Recovery Personnel” through the way of local legislation, so as to lift the development of the “Sunshine Project” from department-level planning to local regulations. Efforts should also be made to make clear the relationship between the rights and obligations of the government, “sunshine enterprises,” and drug rehabilitation and recovery personnel, to make sure that the development of the “Sunshine Project” will not change due to leadership changes, and ensure the sustainable and stable development of the project.

Secondly, strengthen the cooperation with social enterprises, and seek and cultivate a batch of “sunshine enterprises.” The real aim of the “Sunshine Project” is to solve social public problems, which determines that “sunshine enterprises” should have the nature of social welfare, rather than purely profit-making companies. Viewed from the international experience, in the past over 30 years, a kind of social enterprises, which are different from purely profit-making private enterprises and purely charitable non-profit enterprises, emerged and developed rapidly in many places in the world. Currently, social enterprises are also developing rapidly in economically developed areas in China such as Guangdong and Shanghai. Social enterprises are a kind of new organization model, which have welfare social services as main goal, adopt market mechanism to solve social problems, create win-win of both social and economic effects, and are supported by relevant laws, regulations, and government. In this sense, “sunshine enterprises” must be social enterprises, as only in this way can the relationship between the government and “sunshine enterprises” be made clear, so as to solve the issues related to rights, obligations, and contracts between them legally. As the core of social enterprises are social entrepreneurs, so the key of the cooperation between the “Sunshine Project” and social enterprises lies in seeking and cultivating a batch of social entrepreneurs for “sunshine enterprises.” This batch of social entrepreneurs who have both the welfare and enterprising spirits can either be selected in the developed areas in China or within the province, or be cultivated among drug rehabilitation and recovery personnel. In fact, there have been successful cases in which drug rehabilitation and recovery personnel become entrepreneurs in Guizhou. Moreover, in terms of the types of “sunshine enterprises,” the planting industry represented by the “Sunshine Home” in Huaxi District of Guiyang, the breeding industry, the light textile represented by Honghuaguang District of Zunyi, Qianxi County of Bijie and Nanming District of Guiyang, as well as the processing industry are relatively ideal development direction of “sunshine enterprises.”