Jenny Taylor, Lisa Shostak, Andrew Rogers and Paul Mitchell
The purpose of this paper is to outline the challenges to achieving positive outcomes for young people within the secure estate in England, and introduces a psychologically…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to outline the challenges to achieving positive outcomes for young people within the secure estate in England, and introduces a psychologically informed framework, SECURE STAIRS (SS), aimed at improving outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper argues that there is a need for a fundamental shift in the way care and intervention for young people within the secure estate is delivered. It gives an overview of current challenges and needs and summarises the theoretical concepts and evidence base which can guide practice and form the foundations of the SS framework.
Findings
The framework recommends that intervention shift from focussing primarily on individual assessment and treatment to a greater emphasis on supporting the work of the wider system of care. Recommendations include promoting trauma-informed care, a focus on the system dynamics within institutions and how these impact on the care young people receive, and on the collaborative development with residential staff and young people of formulation-led care plans that include a focus on issues of sustainability after leaving the secure estate.
Practical implications
These include the establishment of discrete residential groupings with truly integrated and trauma-informed work across residential, mental health, education and criminal justice agencies. This involves addressing governance issues around shared record keeping, and challenges to sustainability and the accompanying need for local implementation plans for each establishment alongside central support at a strategic level.
Originality/value
This paper describes a new and innovative way of working within secure settings to ensure children and young people’s needs are better met.
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Sara Shostak and Norris Guscott
This paper describes how community gardens generate social capital, and with what potential implications for the health of gardeners and their communities.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper describes how community gardens generate social capital, and with what potential implications for the health of gardeners and their communities.
Methodology/approach
This analysis draws on data from focus groups with gardeners from four community gardening programs, two each in Boston and Lynn, MA. The participants represent a diverse sample of community gardeners (n=32).
Findings
We identify four mechanisms through which community gardening increases social capital, with implications for individual and community health: (1) building social networks; (2) providing opportunities for resource sharing and social support; (3) preserving cultural knowledge and practice in diaspora; and (4) reflecting and reinforcing collective efficacy. We also describe gardeners’ perspectives on gardening itself as a political activity.
Originality/value
While much of the literature on social capital and health in community gardens comes from in-depth studies of single, relatively homogenous gardens, this analysis draws on data from focus group interviews with a diverse group of participants who garden in varied neighborhood settings. In contrast to studies that have suggested that the social capital generated in community gardens does not extend beyond the group of individuals actively involved in gardening, our study identifies multiple community level benefits. Consequently, this paper lends support to recent calls to consider community gardening as strategy for amplifying community assets in support of public health.
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Ashley Colby and Emily Huddart Kennedy
Research has established a connection between industrially-produced food and negative health outcomes. Scholars have also shown a significant link between poor food environments…
Abstract
Purpose
Research has established a connection between industrially-produced food and negative health outcomes. Scholars have also shown a significant link between poor food environments and health. This paper explores the experiences of university extension program agents in order to initiate greater dialogue about the role of extension in lessening the deleterious health impacts of unequal access to high quality and sufficient quantity foods. Specifically, we consider the role of food self-provisioning instruction (e.g., food gardening, preservation).
Methodology/approach
The paper draws on semi-structured interviews with 20 university extension program officers in the state of Washington.
Findings
Although our participants report that demand for education in food production skills is on the rise across Washington, there are barriers to the equitable distribution of self-provisioning skills.
Practical implications
There is considerable promise for extension programs to have positive implications for health and nutrition for communities struggling to access quality foods. To meet this progress, extension must be more aware of serving the entire public either through hiring agents mirror their constituencies or funding a more diverse array of programming.
Originality/value
Little existing research examines or evaluates using university extension programs as a vehicle for teaching food self-production, though these topics have been taught since the founding of extension.
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My early life was punctuated by turning points and transformations that gradually led to a surprising and late-blooming academic career – my first “real” sociology position began…
Abstract
My early life was punctuated by turning points and transformations that gradually led to a surprising and late-blooming academic career – my first “real” sociology position began when I was 44. Here I trace six different trajectories of scholarly work which have compelled me: feminist women's health and technoscience studies; social worlds/arenas and the disciplinary emergence of reproductive sciences; the sociology of work and scientific practices; biomedicalization studies; grounded theory and situational analysis as qualitative research methods; and symbolic interaction-ists and -isms. I have circled back across them multiple times. Instead of seeing a beautifully folded origami of a life, it feels more like a crumpled wad of newspapers from various times. Upon opening and holding them up to the light in different ways, stories may be slowly discerned. I try to capture here some of the sweetness and fragility of these moments toward the end of an initially stuttering but later wondrously gratifying career.