Valuing Participation: The cultural and everyday activities of young people in care

摘要

This document reports on research focusing on the\udparticipation of young people growing up in care. The\udresearch was carried out as part of the Arts and Humanities\udResearch Council funded project Understanding Everyday\udParticipation - Articulating Cultural Values. In this work we\udwanted to understand the ways in which the ‘facilitated’\udand ‘everyday’ activities of young people are valued by\udthem, their immediate carers, and the representatives of the\udcorporate parent. The findings of this research are important in revealing\udsome of the opportunities and barriers to the participation\udof young people in care in a broad range of cultural and\udleisure participation. We found that different types of\udparticipation are valued differently by carers, representatives\udof corporate parents, and young people in care themselves.\udFollowing this we found that the ‘everyday participation’ and\udpreferences of young people in care are often overlooked.\udAnd yet our findings suggest that where facilitation is\udembedded and related to the everyday interests and\udactivities of the young person there is an increased likelihood\udof engagement and participation leading to the established\udbenefits of participation for wellbeing and personal\uddevelopment. Findings from this research support arguments made in\udexisting research and policy that participation in social,\udcultural and leisure activities can improve the wellbeing of\udchildren and young people growing up in care (Gilligan\ud1999; Säfvenbom and Samdahl 2000; Fong et al 2006;\udGilligan 2007; Care Matters 2007, Hollingworth 2012;\udMurray 2013 and Quarmby 2014). Participation can\udhave a number of meaningful and important personal\udand social values. From our research to date a picture is\udemerging that suggests that this might especially be so in\udrelation to participation in cultural, rather than other kinds of\udleisure activities, due to the nature of cultural engagement\udand the opportunities it provides for the construction and\udreconstruction of life stories.\udThis report is intended to be useful to professionals working\udin social and health services, cultural practitioners, charities\udand the education sector, along with families, carers and\udfoster carers.\udBy presenting these findings it is our aim to invite and\udinitiate further research, to stimulate debate, and to effect\udthe provision of culture and leisure services to young\udpeople in care. [Taken from Introduction]