The workplace is a regional partnership focusing on the broad social domain in the South Holland South region. Various partners work together on social issues such as research and educational institutions, municipalities, partners in care and welfare, citizens and clients.
- Further development of Social District Teams: Social district teams have not yet passed the pilot phase. In many municipalities and organisations the challenge in the coming years will be to further develop and adapt the social district teams to the ever evolving knowledge and practice.
- Collaboration between formal and informal care: The (working) relationship between informal and formal, between professional care and social support and between professionals and volunteers/citizens turns out to be a relationship that raises questions for all parties involved.
- Measuring and results in the social domain: The demand for accountability, demonstrable results, substantiation and foundation is getting louder and louder. However, it is difficult to put the social domain into a quantitative/figurative scientific framework on its own. New, different ways of measuring and evaluating the social domain are needed.
- Relationship and interconnectedness within the social domain: Quite a few issues in care and support are often related to poverty (debt) and lack of participation. It is evident that there are relationships between parenting problems and income problems, domestic violence and psychological problems or debts and loneliness. But how do we tackle such complex problems together?
- Participation, self-reliance and independence: When solving problems, residents are expected to rely more on their own strength and network and to be more active as volunteers in society. Professionals should support citizens in becoming more self-reliant and bringing the informal network together.
In working groups, the workplace works with teams consisting of professionals from welfare, education and local government. Transformation learning is central to the working methods of the working groups, as described in the book 'Learning to transform', a publication of the joint WMO workshops. Transformation learning focuses on the urgent questions from practice. An important aspect of transformational learning is experiential learning, but attention is paid to both experiences and knowledge development. Experiential learning is an active process in which existing knowledge is exchanged and new knowledge and insights are built up. In the work of the working groups, everyday practice is leading. This means that the perspective of the client, target group, volunteer or neighbourhood residents is always central.
Working group 1: Further development of social district teams
Social district teams have not yet passed the pilot phase. In the coming years, the challenge in many municipalities and organisations will be to further develop and adapt the social district teams to the ever evolving knowledge and practice. Learning questions around an integral service concept are central.
Working Group 2: Collaboration between formal and informal care
The (working) relationship between informal and formal, between professional care and social support and between professionals and volunteers/citizens turns out to be a relationship that raises questions for all parties involved. The emergence of a caring ring around vulnerable citizens is central.
The new Social Domain Workshop is a collaboration between seven municipalities in South Holland. The aim is to support the social professional in the implementation of daily practice.
During the kick-off meeting on 22 September 2016, we already looked ahead: “For the workshop,” professor Toby Witte (Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences) says, “it’s ultimately not about the quality of care, but about the quality of life of the resident”. The first year the researchers focused on two themes: the further development of social district teams and collaboration between formal and informal care. An inspiring quote during the presentation of the working groups was that of social enterprise Greyston Bakery: “We don’t hire people to bake brownies, but we bake brownies to hire people”. We’re not all going to work to create a workshop, but the workshop exists because we all want to work together.