scholarly journals Restoring Our Roots: Land-Based Community by and for Indigenous Youth

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Fast ◽  
Melanie Lefebvre ◽  
Christopher Reid ◽  
Wahsontiiostha Brooke Deer ◽  
Dakota Swiftwolfe ◽  
...  

Knowledge gathered about the impacts of land-based teachings on Indigenous youth is limited. Many Indigenous people and government commissions have pointed to targeted assimilation and land theft as central to historical and ongoing collective dissociation of Indigenous Peoples from their ways of being in relation with the land. It is thus paramount that Indigenous youth be given the opportunities to (re)connect with their cultures in safe, accessible spaces/places. Demonstrating the many ways learning from the land is beneficial for Indigenous youth, the Restoring Our Roots participatory action research project contributes to the knowledge base in this area to centre Indigeneity and reclaim our cultures by enacting Indigenous methodologies and pedagogies. An Indigenous youth advisory committee developed a four-day land-based retreat, held in July 2018, that focused on (re)connecting Indigenous youth to land-based teachings and ceremony. In interviews following the retreat, youth participants spoke about positive changes related to identity, belonging, well-being, and feeling free from violence in this space that engaged land-based teachings led by Elders, Knowledge Holders, and youth themselves. Some Indigenous youth who identify as Two-Spirit, non-binary, and/or LGBTQIA+ attended the retreat and shared how important it is to have safe spaces that are inclusive of diverse gender roles and identities. Restoring Our Roots created an inclusive community of support, sharing, and learning for Indigenous youth, extending into participants’ everyday lives in the city. This project has since grown into Land As Our Teacher, a five- year research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, that explores benefits of land-based pedagogies for Indigenous youth.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Liegghio

While globally advances have been made to recognize children as social actors in their own right, for psychiatrized young people their experiences of distress are often seen as a limitation and thus used as a justification for denying their meaningful participation in matters of concern to their lives. However, what would it mean if ‘mental illness’ was not seen as a ‘limitation’, but rather as an ‘epistemological position’ from which the social world is experienced, understood and acted upon? What would it mean if our theories about ‘distress’ and ‘helping’ were premised on the subjugated knowledges of psychiatrized children and youth? The consumer/survivor-led research movement has made significant gains in answering these questions for the adult, but not necessarily for the child and youth mental health field. The purpose of this article is to critically examine the significance of psychiatrized young people setting and executing their own research and, ultimately, practice agendas. Presented are the outcomes of an evaluation of a participatory action research project examining the stigma of mental illness conducted with seven psychiatrized youth, 14 to 17 years old. The outcomes suggest our roles as practitioners and researchers need to shift from being ‘agents’ working on behalf of to ‘allies’ working in solidarity with young people to change the social conditions of their marginalization. The article concludes with the limits of consumer/survivor-led research for addressing adultism and, instead, ends with a call for decolonizing children’s mental health.


Author(s):  
A. Deprêtre ◽  
F. Jacquinod

Abstract. Urban planning is a very complex task, especially considering the many challenges it faces, including an increasing need for housing in response to demographic growth and a need to limit abusive land artificialisation. As part of an interdisciplinary action-research project focused on experimenting with various uses of an existing City Information Model (CIM) for urban design, we are developing a new indicator to characterize urban intensity and a method to quantify it through the City Information Model (CIM) of a French eco-district. Our project is ongoing, and, in this paper, we present intermediate results on the potential of this CIM to support the automated quantification of our urban intensity indicator. We also describe the solutions currently implemented so that our experimental CIM can provide the necessary information for a more complete and automated urban intensity analysis. Finally, we shed light on key issues regarding the use of CIM, specifically CIM made up of various BIM models (of buildings lots and public spaces) for urban analysis at the district scale during the design phase. These issues include the need to generalize BIM entities and to manage property sets and nomenclatures to allow automation of analyses at the district scale, as long as there is no BIM+ data model allowing for urban analysis.


KWALON ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Famke van Lieshout ◽  
Gaby Jacobs ◽  
Shaun Cardiff

Action research in lifestyle research is no sinecure. Response to Kromme et al.: ‘Changing together is learning together’, a participatory action research project This is a reply to the contribution entitled: ‘Learning together is changing together: A participatory action research project on the role of the internist in promoting a healthy lifestyle’. Here the authors highlight the complexity of facilitating participatory action research (PAR) in a clinical practice setting and reflect on the first three stages of their research through eight principles that could guide PAR, as described by Van Lieshout et al. (2017). As we developed these principles, we explain the principles of participation, reflexivity, contextuality and transformation in greater detail in relation to the context of this study. The authors made suggestions to change the five-phased model of PAR to get a better grip on the process. The authors rightly highlighted some limitations in the labeling of some phases. However, it is the reflexivity on the multiple perspectives that facilitators encounter and the relationships they engage with during the process, as well as acknowledging the iterative process of PAR, which needs to be embraced and experienced during the entire process of study.


Given the interdependence of the public and private sectors and simultaneous and massive impact of widespread disasters on the entire community, this paper investigates the use of information technologies, specifically geospatial information systems, within the multi-organizational community to effectively co-create value during disaster response and recovery efforts. We present and examine in depth a participatory action research project in a disaster-experienced coastal community conducted during the 2006-2014 time period. The results of the action research project and analysis of a survey completed by stakeholders leads to a list of findings, in particular those related to developing a model of next generation learning design where students are co-creators of value to the smart cities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 147-153
Author(s):  
Virgilio Abrahão Junior ◽  
Julia Alejandra Pezuk

Resumo Atualmente no Brasil é possível observar uma parcela da população jovens, principalmente nas classes sociais mais baixas, sujeitos a situações que acarretam maior susceptibilidade para se envolver com drogas, prostituição, crimes, gravidez e doenças sexualmente transmissíveis. Diversos fatores psicossociais são necessários para que os adolescentes passem pela adolescência sem a necessidade deste tipo de envolvimentos. A recreação e o lazer podem ser usados como instrumento para facilitar a inclusão social e ao mercado de trabalho de jovens marginalizados. O impacto emocional positivo do uso da recreação e do lazer favorece o bem-estar e auxilia na inclusão social de adolescentes, e possibilitam o uso dessas ferramentas para serem explorados em eventos e atividades recreativas. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo mostrar a importância do desenvolvimento de projetos sobre recreação e o lazer para a inclusão social de jovens. Para isso é relatada a experiência com o Programa Social realizado na cidade de Guarulhos/SP intitulado Programa Oportunidade ao Jovem, que busca a qualificação profissional dos jovens da cidade que se encontram em situação de risco e pobreza, e que estão em geral excluídos da sociedade. Mostramos aqui que a inclusão social por meio de programas sociais usando atividades recreativas facilita a inserção social de jovens marginalizados e devem ser consideradas nas políticas públicas. Pois ainda permitem que adolescentes em situação econômica precária tenham a possibilidade de exercer uma profissão na área de recreação ao término dos cursos dos programas, impactando significativamente na vida desses jovens.   Palavras-chave: Programa Social. Agente de Recreação. Políticas Públicas.   Abstract In Brazil it is possible to observe a portion of the young population, mainly in the lower social classes, who are subject to situations that cause greater susceptibility to get involved with drugs, prostitution, crimes, pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Several psychosocial factors are necessary for adolescents to go through adolescence without the need for this type of involvement. Recreation can be used as an instrument to facilitate social inclusion and the labor market for marginalized youth. The positive emotional impact of recreation favors well-being and assists in the social inclusion of adolescents and enables the use of these tools to be explored in events and recreational activities. In this context, this paper aims to show the importance of developing projects on recreation for the social inclusion of young people. For this, the experience with the Social Program carried out in the city of Guarulhos / SP entitled Programa Oportunidade ao Jovem, which seeks the professional qualification of young people in the city who are at risk and poverty, and who are in general excluded from society, is reported. We show here that social inclusion through social programs using recreational activities facilitates the social insertion of marginalized youth and should be considered in public policies. Because they still allow adolescents in a precarious economic situation to have the possibility of exercising a profession in the area of recreation at the end of the program courses, significantly impacting the lives of these young people   Keywords: Social Program. Recreation Agent. Public Policy.


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Gossett Zakrajsek ◽  
Mansha Mirza ◽  
Nathan Kai-Cheong Chan ◽  
Tom Wilson ◽  
Mark Karner ◽  
...  

<p><span>Despite preference for community-based living, large numbers of people with psychiatric disabilities live in nursing homes throughout the US. Community-based services for this population are limited by public policy and service system barriers. This paper summarizes these barriers and presents the second phase of a participatory action research project jointly developed by university-based researchers and two Centers for Independent Living. A qualitative case study methodology was used to understand the experiences of three individuals with psychiatric disabilities reintegrating into the community from nursing homes. Findings revealed themes of social isolation, participation in virtual communities, variability of impairment experiences and unmet needs for community supports. In addition to thematic findings, action products were generated for the benefit of community partners. These products included national best practice resources and a needs assessment survey tool. Study findings and products point to specific systems change and policy recommendations to better support community reintegration for this population. These recommendations are discussed in light of U.S. healthcare reform and broader disability advocacy efforts.</span></p>


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