Paper presentation on (the importance of) informal social work, based on research on this theme by the Department of Urban Social Work in the past years in New West Amsterdam and South east Amsterdam.
The online lifeworld gives adolescents various opportunities to meet their developmental needs. Not all young people benefit from these opportunities. They encounter negative experiences, have difficulties fulfilling their needs and engage in risky and harmful behaviours in the online lifeworld. This poses challenges for Dutch youth work professionals, as little is known about the digital lives of Dutch adolescents and the challenges they encounter when meeting their developmental needs in the online lifeworld. In this qualitative study, a photovoice method was used to collect screenshots from adolescents (N = 175) concerning their experiences and needs in the online lifeworld. Six types of developmental needs in the online lifeworld were distinguished. The article concludes that understanding how adolescents use online affordances to fulfil their developmental needs is a starting point for all youth work professionals in providing adequate support to adolescents in the online lifeworld.
Eating healthier at work can substantially promote health for office workers. However, little has been investigated on designing pervasive health interventions specialized in improving workday eating patterns. This paper presents a design study of an mHealth app called EAT@WORK, which was designed to support office workers in the Netherlands in developing healthy eating behaviors in work routines. Based on semi-structured interviews with 12 office workers from a variety of occupations, we synthesized four key features for EAT@WORK, including supporting easy access to relevant knowledge, assisting goal setting, integrating with health programs, and facilitating peer supports. The user acceptance of EAT@WORK was examined through a within-subject study with 14 office workers, followed by a qualitative study on the applicability of app features to different working contexts. Quantitative results showed that EAT@WORK was experienced more useful than a benchmark app (p < 0.01) and EAT@WORK was also perceived easier to use than the benchmark app (p < 0.01). The qualitative analysis suggested that the goal assistant feature could be valuable for different working contexts, while the integrated health program was considered more suitable for office work than telework. The social and knowledge support were expected to be on-demand features that should loosely be bonded with the working contexts. Based on these findings, we discuss design implications for the future development of such mHealth technologies to promote healthy eating routines among office workers.
LINK
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.
The transition towards an economy of wellbeing is complex, systemic, dynamic and uncertain. Individuals and organizations struggle to connect with and embrace their changing context. They need to create a mindset for the emergence of a culture of economic well-being. This requires a paradigm shift in the way reality is constructed. This emergence begins with the mindset of each individual, starting bottom-up. A mindset of economic well-being is built using agency, freedom, and responsibility to understand personal values, the multi-identity self, the mental models, and the individual context. A culture is created by waving individual mindsets together and allowing shared values, and new stories for their joint context to emerge. It is from this place of connection with the self and the other, that individuals' intrinsic motivation to act is found to engage in the transitions towards an economy of well-being. This project explores this theoretical framework further. Businesses play a key role in the transition toward an economy of well-being; they are instrumental in generating multiple types of value and redefining growth. They are key in the creation of the resilient world needed to respond to the complex and uncertain of our era. Varta-Valorisatielab, De-Kleine-Aarde, and Het Groene Brein are frontrunner organizations that understand their impact and influence. They are making bold strategic choices to lead their organizations towards an economy of well-being. Unfortunately, they often experience resistance from stakeholders. To address this resistance, the consortium in the proposal seeks to answer the research question: How can individuals who connect with their multi-identity-self, (via personal values, mental models, and personal context) develop a mindset of well-being that enables them to better connect with their stakeholders (the other) and together address the transitional needs of their collective context for the emergence of a culture of the economy of wellbeing?
Digital transformation has been recognized for its potential to contribute to sustainability goals. It requires companies to develop their Data Analytic Capability (DAC), defined as their ability to collect, manage and analyze data effectively. Despite the governmental efforts to promote digitalization, there seems to be a knowledge gap on how to proceed, with 37% of Dutch SMEs reporting a lack of knowledge, and 33% reporting a lack of support in developing DAC. Participants in the interviews that we organized preparing this proposal indicated a need for guidance on how to develop DAC within their organization given their unique context (e.g. age and experience of the workforce, presence of legacy systems, high daily workload, lack of knowledge of digitalization). While a lot of attention has been given to the technological aspects of DAC, the people, process, and organizational culture aspects are as important, requiring a comprehensive approach and thus a bundling of knowledge from different expertise. Therefore, the objective of this KIEM proposal is to identify organizational enablers and inhibitors of DAC through a series of interviews and case studies, and use these to formulate a preliminary roadmap to DAC. From a structure perspective, the objective of the KIEM proposal will be to explore and solidify the partnership between Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas), Avans University of Applied Sciences (Avans), Logistics Community Brabant (LCB), van Berkel Logistics BV, Smink Group BV, and iValueImprovement BV. This partnership will be used to develop the preliminary roadmap and pre-test it using action methodology. The action research protocol and preliminary roadmap thereby developed in this KIEM project will form the basis for a subsequent RAAK proposal.
