In English

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Residential area experienced by families with children – well-being in challenging environment

The ecological model according to which the factors which are related to the growth environment have important significance in the growth process of the children and adolescents serves as a large frame of the research. The well-being learning which has been studied only a little so far, is central in the project as a concept. The children and young learn well-being in many contexts for example at home, school, in hobbies, in the yard circle and on the street. Also the different communities learn well-being as well as ill being; the well-being is a learning result. The information about well-being learning and teaching is needed as the foundation of the planning and implementation of the preventive operation.

The research areas in the city of Lahti, Finland, are suburb Liipola and the center. The actual target groups of the study are children, young and the parents of families with children. The experiental data will be gathered with several methods e.g. by photographing, interviewing and collecting writings. The data will be analyzed and reported at several stages of the project, so that the information can be utilized in the developing of residential areas. On the basis of the produced information can be supported and strengthened the well-being of the children, young people and families with children. Also the supporting actions can be designed from new points of view.

In the project will be answered into following questions, which will be focused according to the developing study extract when the project proceeds:

1. What matters do the children, young people and parents themselves consider important to their own well-being? What kind of agency and partnership the families with children have in use in their residential areas?

2. What kind of significance the actors give to their residential area as physical, psychic and social growth environment as well as learning environment? What kind of significance the residential area has to the well-being experiences?

3. What kind of services the families with children and youth use and what is availability of those and what kind of additional needs they have?

Furthermore, the relation of the pedagogic well-being to the educational equality will be studied.

Based on the produced information will be constructed a model which is suitable for prevention of the social exclusion of families with children and can be used in the cross-administrative collaboration in the area of Lahti.

Financing of the project: Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland & University of Helsinki, Palmenia Centre for Continuing Education, Lahti, Finland.

Additional information:

Jaana Poikolainen, Ph.D. (Educ.)
University researcher
tel. +358 50 3112526
jaana.poikolainen@helsinki.fi

Kati Honkanen, Lic.Sc. (Admin.) 
Planning officer / researcher
p. +358 50 5880715
kati.honkanen@helsinki.fi