Introduction: The health-promoting school (HPS) approach was developed by the World Health Organization to create health promotion changes in the whole school system. Implementing the approach can be challenging for schools because schools are dynamic organizations with each a unique context. Many countries worldwide have a health promotion system in place in which healthy school (HS) advisors support schools in the process of implementing the HPS approach. Even though these HS advisors can take on various roles to provide support in an adaptive and context-oriented manner, these roles have not yet been described. The current study aims to identify and describe the key roles of the HS advisor when supporting schools during the dynamic process of implementing the HPS approach. Methods: The study was part of a project in which a capacity-building module was developed for and with HS advisors in the Netherlands. In the current study, a co-creation process enabled by participatory research was used in which researchers, HS advisors, national representatives, and coordinators of the Dutch HS program participated. Co-creation processes took place between October 2020 and November 2021 and consisted of four phases: (1) a narrative review of the literature, (2) interviews, (3) focus groups, and (4) a final check. Results: Five roles were identified. The role of “navigator” as a more central one and four other roles: “linking pin,” “expert in the field,” “critical friend,” and “ambassador of the HPS approach.” The (final) description of the five roles was recognizable for the HS advisors that participated in the study, and they indicated that it provided a comprehensive overview of the work of an HS advisor in the Netherlands. Discussion: The roles can provide guidance to all Dutch HS advisors and the regional public health organizations that employ them on what is needed to provide sufficient and context-oriented support to schools. These roles can inspire and guide people from other countries to adapt the roles to their own national context.
Dit onderzoek schetst het dagelijks werk van de nieuwe functie 'community builder' bij de gemeente Den Haag. Daarbij brengen we hun werkterrein en aanpak in beeld. Daarnaast belichten we de positie van de community builders binnen de dynamiek van de wijk en van de gemeentelijke organisatie. Tot slot formuleren we aanbevelingen om de conceptuele, institutionele en professionele positie van de community builders te versterken.
Samenvatting Mensen met een beperking (psychiatrisch, verstandelijk, lichamelijk) wonen tegenwoordig vaker zelfstandig en doen voor hun ondersteuning daarom vaker een beroep op mensen in de buurt waar zij wonen. Dit betekent voor de professionele hulpverleners dat zij een steeds grotere taak krijgen in het versterken van het sociale netwerk van mensen met een beperking, en het (op deze wijze) bevorderen van inclusie in de buurt. In hun werk merken zorg- en welzijnsprofessionals op dat, soms relatief spontaan ingezette of kleine initiatieven succesvol kunnen zijn, maar soms ook niet. De professionals hebben wel ideeën over wat goed werkt en wat niet, maar dit is niet op één centrale plek vastgelegd, en daarbij soms onduidelijk en afhankelijk van de context. Zij vragen zich af hoe ze de informatie die ze elk hebben kunnen bundelen en tot meer inzicht kunnen komen in wat werkt, in welke situatie en in welke context. In het project wordt samengewerkt door de Hogeschool van Amsterdam (AKMI / Lectoraat Community Care), de Sociaal Werkopleidingen van de HvA, de Afdeling onderwijs, jeugd en zorg van de Gemeente Amsterdam, GGD Amsterdam, Cliëntenbelang Amsterdam, Centrum voor Cliëntervaringen (i.s.m. VuMcAmsterdam), De Regenbooggroep, Cordaan en Stichting Prisma. In dit onderzoek zullen drie verschillende buurtgerichte interventies worden getoetst aan de hand van de ‘what works’ principes (wwp). De interventies gericht op het bevorderen van de sociale inclusie van mensen met beperkingen in de buurt worden geëvalueerd door cliënten/ ervaringsdeskundigen, zorg- en welzijnsprofessionals en buurtbewoners. Voor dit onderzoek is gekozen voor ‘realis evaluation’, waarin niet het effect op zich wordt onderzocht, maar de werkzame elementen van een interventie. Belangrijke opbrengsten van het project zijn: 1) het determineren en beschrijven van werkzame elementen die leidend kunnen zijn voor het bedenken en/of beoordelen van initiatieven om de netwerken van mensen met een beperking in de buurt te versterken; 2) op basis daarvan een handreiking bieden voor professionals.
Teachers have a crucial role in bringing about the extensive social changes that are needed in the building of a sustainable future. In the EduSTA project, we focus on sustainability competences of teachers. We strengthen the European dimension of teacher education via Digital Open Badges as means of performing, acknowledging, documenting, and transferring the competencies as micro-credentials. EduSTA starts by mapping the contextual possibilities and restrictions for transformative learning on sustainability and by operationalising skills. The development of competence-based learning modules and open digital badge-driven pathways will proceed hand in hand and will be realised as learning modules in the partnering Higher Education Institutes and badge applications open for all teachers in Europe.Societal Issue: Teachers’ capabilities to act as active facilitators of change in the ecological transition and to educate citizens and workforce to meet the future challenges is key to a profound transformation in the green transition.Teachers’ sustainability competences have been researched widely, but a gap remains between research and the teachers’ practise. There is a need to operationalise sustainability competences: to describe direct links with everyday tasks, such as curriculum development, pedagogical design, and assessment. This need calls for an urgent operationalisation of educators’ sustainability competences – to support the goals with sustainability actions and to transfer this understanding to their students.Benefit to society: EduSTA builds a community, “Academy of Educators for Sustainable Future”, and creates open digital badge-driven learning pathways for teachers’ sustainability competences supported by multimodal learning modules. The aim is to achieve close cooperation with training schools to actively engage in-service teachers.Our consortium is a catalyst for leading and empowering profound change in the present and for the future to educate teachers ready to meet the challenges and act as active change agents for sustainable future. Emphasizing teachers’ essential role as a part of the green transition also adds to the attractiveness of teachers’ work.
ALE organised an event with Parktheater Eindhoven and LSA-citizens (the Dutch umbrella organisation for active citizens). Five ALE students from the minor Imagineering and business/social innovation took responsibility for concept and actual organisation. On Jan 18th, they were supported by six other group members of the minor as volunteers. An IMEM-team of 5 students gathered materials for a video that can support the follow-up actions of the organisers. The students planned to deliver their final product on February 9th. The theatre will critically assess the result and compare it to the products often realised by students from different schools or even professional ones, like Veldkamp productions. Time will tell whether future opportunities will come up for IMEM. The collaboration of ALE and IMEM students is possible and adding value to the project.More than 180 visitors showed interest in the efforts of 30 national and local citizen initiatives presenting themselves on the market square in the theatre and the diverse speakers during the plenary session. The students created a great atmosphere using the qualities of the physical space and the hospitality of the theatre. Chair of the day, Roland Kleve, kicked off and invited a diverse group of people to the stage: Giel Pastoor, director of the theatre, used the opportunity to share his thoughts on the shifting role of theatre in our dynamic society. Petra Ligtenberg, senior project manager SDG NL https://www.sdgnederland.nl/sdgs/ gave insights to the objectives and progress of the Netherlands. Elly Rijnierse, city maker and entrepreneur from Den Haag, presented her intriguing efforts in her own neighbourhood in the city to create at once both practical and social impacts on SDG 11 (sustainable city; subgoal 3.2). Then the alderman Marcel Oosterveer informed the visitors about Eindhoven’s efforts on SDGs. The plenary ended with very personal interviews of representatives of two impressive citizen initiatives (Parkinson to beat; Stichting Ik Wil). In the two workshop rounds, ALE took responsibility for two workshops. Firstly the workshop: Beyond SDG cherrypicking: using the Economy for the common good’, in cooperation with citizen initiative Ware winst Brabant en Parktheater (including Social innovation-intern Jasper Box), secondly a panel dialogue on local partnerships (SDG 17) for the sustainable city (SDG 11) addressing inclusion (SDG 10) and the livability (SDG 3) with 11 representatives from local/provincial government, companies, third sector and, of course: citizen initiatives.
