The Family Academy as a model for building a social ecology of resilience from children to families to community in socially vulnerable areas. A planning study

In recent years, social vulnerability in urban areas has come to the attention of policy makers, police and researchers.

Approximately 40 locations in Sweden’s three largest cities have been classified as having vulnerable areas, risk areas or particularly vulnerable areas (a scale from lower to highest vulnerability). A further twenty cities and towns in Sweden have areas designated by the police as vulnerable. In these areas, the socio-economic status of inhabitants is significantly lower than the national average.

These areas have a high degree of ethnic segregation, low levels of trust in public authorities, and higher than average unemployment and crime rates.

These areas also have large youth populations and a relatively high proportion of young people leaving school with incomplete grades.The aim of this planning project is to study the early implementation of one intervention (the Family Academy) in one school in a particularly vulnerable area aimed at all parents and their children who are in grade 4.

The purpose of this grassroots, culturally sensitive early intervention is to help all children achieve positive educational and social outcomes despite adversity. We will use this planning research to investigate what the program offers and how the program is delivered. We will then prepare for a larger research project/program together with the ´academy´.

We will follow three cohorts of students, their families and program facilitators who have participated in the program and investigate outcomes for children, their families and the community as a whole.

We will analyse what aspects of the program produce positive outcomes (for children´s education and social life, parenting and interagency collaboration).

The overall purpose is to integrate lessons learned from this research into mainstream policies aimed at strengthening parents’ and children’s self-efficacy and identity whilst building a sense of social cohesion in communities once considered vulnerable.