(IN)FORMELE ZORG-ZORGZAME STRATEN
Strengthening a caring attitude to achieve a caring neighborhood
From until
What
The citizens' initiative 'Caring Streets' focuses on a caring neighborhood. They want to strengthen the caring attitude. This means that residents look out for each other and help each other with small matters. Our task within this project is to investigate how all stakeholders in the neighborhood can work together towards a caring attitude.
The Flemish government decreed:
“In een zorgzame buurt zijn de voorwaarden vervuld opdat mensen, ongeacht leeftijd en grote of kleine ondersteuningsbehoeften op meerdere levensdomeinen, comfortabel in hun woning of vertrouwde buurt kunnen (blijven) wonen. Het is een buurt waar jong en oud samenleven, waar mensen zich goed en geborgen voelen, waar levenskwaliteit centraal staat, waar bewoners elkaar kennen en helpen, waar personen en gezinnen met grote en kleine ondersteuningsnoden ondersteuning krijgen en waar diensten en voorzieningen toegankelijk en beschikbaar zijn (Vlaamse Overheid, 2021).”
In two pilot neighborhoods in Antwerp, Sint-Andries and Seefhoek, we bring together people who can play a role in a caring neighborhood: local residents, volunteers, family care, the local service center, etc.
At a first meeting, everyone can share his or her dreams. In the next session we make those dreams very concrete and discuss how we are going to achieve them.
Het burgerinitiatief zorgzame straten zet in op een zorgzame buurt. In pilootwijk Sint-Andries slaan buurtbewoners, vrijwilligers, gezinszorg, mensen van het lokaal dienstencentrum de handen in elkaar om hun buurt nog zorgzamer te maken.
Goal
The aim is to find out how we can develop a supported and communal caring attitude in the neighborhood. And this with all relevant partners in community-oriented care, both informal and formal.
We want to achieve concrete actions and agreements between interested people in a caring neighborhood or district in Sint-Andries and Seefhoek.
The end product of this project is a report with concrete ideas and plans to concretize the caring attitude together in the future. It also contains recommendations on cooperation between the citizens' initiative and professional healthcare and welfare actors.
Relevance
Working on a caring neighborhood means strengthening connections: connections between people, between people and organizations, across target groups. For example, between professionals, volunteers and informal caregivers. That's why we bring all these people together within this project. With the efforts of these diverse citizens, we can then create a caring neighborhood together.
Community-oriented care can provide an answer to the social challenge of loneliness. Increased vulnerability due to health, finances, life cycle, such as divorce and widowhood, combine to increase the risk of loneliness (Heylen, 2011). A caring neighborhood, and specifically caring streets, focuses precisely on those vulnerable target groups.
Our role
We started this project with an exploratory literature study into citizen initiatives in the healthcare and welfare sector. We then took a look at the 'caring streets' initiative. We exposed the DNA and formulated workable elements. We did this by talking to participants and leaders of caring streets in in-depth interviews and a focus group. We then guided relevant people in care and welfare in the two pilot neighborhoods to arrive at concrete agreements and actions that make Sint-Andries and Seefhoek an even more caring neighborhood.
We used the methodology of the personas and first let them dream together about a caring neighborhood or attitude. Then we made the dreams concrete together. Finally, we organized a networking moment in both neighborhoods to reach concrete agreements and collaborations. The pilot districts can now continue independently with those agreements.
Researchers
Dorien Gryp
Loneliness researcher with a passion for public spaces. Always in the mood for a concert.