On the side of the angels: community involvement in the governance of neighbourhood renewal.

This article draws upon the authors’ experiences of community-led regeneration developed while members of the National Evaluation Team for the NDC Programme. The article continues the focus on urban regeneration adopted in a range of outputs from two of the authors over the last decade. In assessing how the term community has been defined by policy-makers and the challenges involved in empowering communities, the output was aimed at both academic and user communities. For its direct relevance to communities involved in regeneration, the article was awarded the 2006 Sam Aaronovitch Prize, awarded annually by the journal Local Economy

Contemporary young motherhood: experiences of hostility

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the hostility many young women who are also mothers experience within their everyday lives. Design/methodology/approach: The paper will draw on qualitative research, incorporating a narrative approach, to illustrate the hostility many young mothers experience on a daily basis. The research design included a focus group, semi-structure interviews and participant observations. Findings: The paper reports the findings of a study that explored the experiences of young women who are also mothers. The author presents the findings that indicate that many young women, who are also young mothers, experience hostile reactions and interactions as part of their everyday lives. Research limitations/implications: The small sample size means that this study cannot be generalised, but it does contribute to the growing body of qualitative evidence in relation to young mothers. Practical implications: The findings suggest that there needs to be more recognition and acknowledgement of the hostility young women experience. Such hostility could have deleterious consequences on the young women, their parenting ability and also on the children. Originality/value: This paper documents the experiences of young women who are also mothers and how they experience hostility as a daily occurrence. The hostility ranged from verbal to non-verbal and how they felt they were being treated, inferences about their sexuality to stereotyping

Sub-post offices and high street revitalisation: lessons from the experience of grant assistance to sub-post offices in deprived urban areas of the UK

Post Offices (POs) are essential service providers within deprived urban areas. This paper explores some lessons from the impact of grant assistance to sub-post offices (SPOs) in deprived urban areas of England and Scotland which are relevant to contemporary policy initiatives to revive high streets. Utilising longitudinal data to explore whether government grant assistance has made a difference in enabling the survival and development of assisted SPOs, it also considers their role in maintaining and developing shops and services in deprived urban neighbourhoods. The inter-relationship of SPOs with their local economies and communities is explored, including external influences such as competition and complementarity and internal influences relating to the evolving role of SPOs in the early 21st century. A central theme is the apparent paradox between the UK Government’s desire to maintain SPOs as essential service providers and catalysts for other ‘high street’ services within deprived urban areas, whilst opening their core services up to increasing levels of competition. Key Words: Post Offices, Retail, High Street Services, Urban, Regeneration, Deprivatio

Occupational therapy for people with psychotic conditions in community settings: a pilot randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effectiveness of a long established intervention, occupational therapy for people with psychotic conditions, and to inform future research designs. DESIGN: A pilot randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Two community mental health teams in a UK city. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-four adults with schizophrenia or other psychotic conditions, and functional problems. INTERVENTIONS: Twelve months of individualized occupational therapy in community settings, as an adjunct to usual care and compared to treatment as usual. A two to one randomization ratio was used in favour of occupational therapy. OUTCOME MEASURES: Social Functioning Scale, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms and employment. RESULTS: Both groups' scores on Social Functioning Scale and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms showed significant improvement over 12 months. The Social Functioning Scale overall mean difference for occupational therapy was 2.33, P=0.020 and for treatment as usual was 6.17, P=0.023. The Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms total mean difference for occupational therapy was -16.25, P<0.001 and for treatment as usual was -17.36, P= 0.011. There were no differences between the two groups on any of the outcome measures. After 12 months the occupational therapy group showed clinically significant improvements that were not apparent in the control group. These were in four subscales of the Social Functioning Scale: relationships, independence performance, independence competence and recreation. Out of 30 people receiving occupational therapy those with a clinical level of negative symptoms reduced from 18 (64%) to 13 (46%), P=0.055. CONCLUSION: This pilot study suggested that individualized occupatio

Developing Employment Opportunities for Care Leavers

This article describes an action research project carried out in North West England that aimed to assist Children’s Services Departments and Care Trusts in developing their strategies for supporting care leavers into employment and training. The study found a range of models and approaches that can be utilised to develop local and regional partnerships offering employment and training opportunities designed to meet the needs of care leavers. Relevant questions about the extent to which such opportunities should be ring-fenced or targeted on particular fields of employment are identified

Barriers to positive mental health in a young offenders institution: A qualitative study

Objective: To explore the barriers to positive mental health in a group of young offenders. Design A qualitative approach was used to provide insight into the ways in which mental health for young offenders is experienced and managed. Setting A Young Offenders Institute (YOI) accommodating males aged between 18 and 21 years. Method: Participants were recruited voluntarily using posters. Twelve offenders participated in focus groups and an additional three interviews were carried out with individuals who felt uncomfortable in the focus group situation. Results: Participants stressed that feelings in a YOI could not be shared due to the masculine ethos that had been created on the wings. Listener services were reported to be ineffective for support because using them would show weakness and vulnerability to other prisoners. Visiting time was the main highlight in the routine for most young offenders; however, leaving family and friends was difficult. In dealing with these emotions young offenders would use coping mechanisms, including acts of aggression to vent built-up frustrations. The issue of prison staff and their effect on mental health was raised by all offenders involved in the research. Unanimously, it was suggested that there are both excellent prison officers who engage with the prisoners, and staff who abuse their power and treat prisoners disrespectfully. Conclusion: Promoting mental health is not the principle business of a YOI. However, this research has generated some issues for consideration for governors and those working within this setting

Resilience and survival : black teenage mothers 'looked after' by the State tell their stories about their experience of care

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Nadia Mantonavi, and Hilary Thomas, 'Resilience and Survival: Black Teenage Mothers ‘Looked After’ by the State Tell their Stories About their Experience of Care', Children & Society, Vol. 29 (4): 299-309, July 2015, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12028. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.‘Looked after’ young people are among the most disadvantaged members of our society. While their disadvantaged status should not be ignored, poor outcomes are often emphasised at the expense of good ones. This paper reports a study that adopts the concept of resilience to understand the narratives of the participants’ experience of care and foster care. A total of 15 young mothers, aged 16-19 and mainly from black African backgrounds, were interviewed. Despite lacking a ‘secure base’, informants invested in a sense of moral identity and a source of self-directedness, which enabled them to move from victim of circumstances to individuals who overcome their circumstances.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Reconsidering "the love of art" : evaluating the potential of art museum outreach

Art museums have long been identified as bastions of social and cultural exclusion. This conclusion was best evidenced by the large-scale 1967 French study by Bourdieu and Darbel demonstrating the exclusionary nature of “The Love of Art.” However, in recent years there have been increasing efforts to reach out to a broader range of visitors beyond conventional audiences. The present study investigates the impacts of an outreach program at a UK art museum, which sought to engage socially excluded young mothers. This study employs ethnographic research methods on a longitudinal basis to develop qualitative insights about the program seeking to mitigate cultural exclusion. While the study’s findings uphold many longstanding critiques of art museums’ conventional approaches, the study also indicates that carefully designed outreach activities can overcome such limitations and enhance cultural engagement. Thus, art museums’ limited appeal is tied to problematic public engagement practices that can be changed

Stuck in the slow lane: reconceptualising the links between gender, transport and social exclusion

This article draws upon primary research undertaken with over 3,000 women in the North East of England to explore the links between women, transport and the labour market. The research, funded by the ESF, advances the idea of spatiality as a social construction and builds on seminal studies relating to women and poverty to consider the way in which a gender division of transport constrains women's mobility and restricts their employment opportunities. It is likely to contribute to important debates, concerning strategies to tackle worklessness and the most effective spatial level at which to configure public transport networks

Choosing Motherhood : The complexities of pregnancy decision-making among young black women 'looked after' by the State

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright 2013 the Authors, published by Elsevier Ltd.Objective: This paper addresses the experiences of a group of young black teenage mothers looked after by the State, most of whom were also either migrants or asylum seekers. The paper explores the experience of discovery of pregnancy, attempts to seek professional help and the eventual decision to continue with the pregnancy. Design: An interpretative study with in-depth interviews. Settings: Interviews were carried out in the participants’ homes and focussed on their experiences of pregnancy decision-making. Participants: 15 young women (aged 16-19), from black minority ethnic groups, with a history of care (past or present), currently pregnant or mothers of a child no older than two years of age. Findings: All the pregnancies were unexpected: eight of the informants conceived as a result of rape and seven while in a relationship. All the young women chose motherhood over abortion despite their complex social and pregnancy background. Conclusions: The importance of social positioning of migrants in terms of the cluster of negative aspects and environmental disadvantage generally experienced by most immigrants in the host country is raised in this paper. Care practices of pregnant women with complex social factors were little observant of woman-centred care approaches.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio