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"A unique little microcosm": Exploring a self-sustaining community project which harnessed social action in a public space.
No full textGovernment policy in England encourages communities to capacity build from within. Community psychology has explored the role of community resilience in this process. But what happens if a community appears to lack formalized resources? This article considers such a community in which a grassroots community center thrives outside the boundaries of formalized community organizations. It aimed to find out how this community mobilized, the benefits for those connected, and how the center survives. A grounded theory 'center as a living organism' was constructed from the accounts of eleven participants. Results indicate how community centers play a role in promoting individual and community level well-being and preventing distress. The importance of learning from progressive community initiatives and more partnership working between National Health Service, statutory, voluntary, and community groups is indicated. Effective engagement with and across communities to promote resilience and well-being is also a theme of the responses to recent events in England, such as the terrorist attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire
Does an oracy intervention affect the way that teachers cope with students who challenge or worry them in some way?
Get PDFThe Voice 21: Improving oracy intervention funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) was focused upon improving the quality of classroom dialogue at the Y7 level. It has four key elements: (i) an oracy curriculum, which includes dedicated oracy lessons and strategies for building oracy in regular school lessons; (ii) a training package for school staff; (iii) strategies to build a whole-school oracy culture, including building oracy into assemblies and parents’ evenings, and (iv) an oracy assessment tool, which helps teachers to identify specific speaking and listening skills. Past research focussed upon oracy has established that oracy can lead to school age students achieving substantially improved skills in maths, science, and reasoning. This study attempts to develop an understanding of how vulnerable students were thought about and engaged with in a school that had recently completed the EEF intervention. Five teachers were interviewed and asked about their experiences of working with students perceived as challenging or worrying before and after the intervention, and about the possible impact of the intervention on relationships among students and teachers in the school. A social constructivist epistemological position was adopted and a grounded theory methodology was used. Teachers reported that students developed skills in listening and relating to other students, which contributed to improved relations among students. Teachers also reflected that the intervention offered them the space to develop more trusting and close relationships with students. Oracy was described as serving students who were challenging or worrying by helping teachers to identify students with language difficulties, by giving students who attracted negative attention opportunities to participate positively in school and by offering students who were otherwise socially vulnerable tools to present their ideas, and a platform from which to influence the school culture
Envy, jealousy, love and generosity in sibling relationships: The impact of sibling relationships on future family relationships
No full textAdvocacy and luck: Australian healthcare experiences following a suicide attempt
No full textHigh quality mental health care after a suicide attempt is a key strategy for preventing subsequent suicide attempts and deaths, yet little is known about how people navigate the healthcare system following a suicide attempt. This paper focuses on the stories told by 20 people who had attempted suicide. Five themes emerged: fitting into the healthcare system; need for advocacy; consistent care; lucky to find help; and, small kindnesses. Positive and empathetic healthcare experiences, as well as connected services, assisted the recovery of people who have attempted suicide
Crisis, what crisis - and whose crisis is it anyway? A psychoanalytically informed account of how to keep thinking in the face of the day-to-day work of managing rising anxiety
Get PDFNew developments: training in the facilitation of work discussion groups
No full textInvitations to provide training in the work discussion model and its facilitation led the authors to question how we learn to facilitate work discussion groups. The authors describe their experience of developing a pilot five day foundation course in Work Discussion Group facilitation with participants who were unfamiliar with the Work Discussion Group model. The paper describes the thinking behind the training, its central elements and the emphasis on learning from experience as student participants became familiar with being Work Discussion Group members, presenters and, later, to trying out the role of facilitator.
The authors draw on their experience of running these training programmes, and of leading work discussion seminars themselves to illustrate how opportunities to take up the facilitation task, with support and consultation from the two course leaders, enabled participants to consolidate their understanding of work discussion itself as well as of the task of the facilitator. This task is particularly important in terms of containing the group and keeping it on task, while taking note of unconscious processes and powerful projections of anxiety and inadequacy which dominate in early presentations of oneself in a work interaction. Despite the authors’ reservations about what would be possible in such a course, especially given its brief nature and the limited experience of many participants, the outcomes indicate that the course had a powerful and transformational impact on many; some went on to introduce work discussion into their own work settings, and to research it
Raising a 'red flag' by not going to school: A grounded theory study of family coach intervention with persistent school non-attender
Get PDFPersistent school non attendance (PSNA) is a widely acknowledged problem. Outcomes for persistent absentees are poor in the long term. Children and young people (CYP) who are often absent from school are more likely than others to leave with few or no qualifications, to suffer mental health difficulties and to become criminal offenders in adult life. Family coaches work with families where a child has persistently poor or no school attendance, alongside adult unemployment or anti-social behaviour. Uniquely, their work extends across different systems: school; family; professional services and the wider community. As a team, they have extensive experience of casework, having worked with several hundred families in the local authority. This grounded theory study draws upon the unique perspective and experience of this team in order to understand what factors they perceive to induce and constrain the successful reintegration of CYP, from coaching families, to school after a period of PSNA. A theoretical framework, based upon their combined experiences, is set out in order to help inform future work within the local context and beyond. This emphasises the importance of ensuring that CYP feel safe in their family home, as the key focus of successful coaching intervention