A qualitative study of the role of playgroups in building community capacity

Abstract

Community playgroups play a key role in building the capacity of communities and provide a vehicle for the development of new volunteers. SO WHAT?: Local governments, schools and other community organisations that rely on volunteer committees would benefit from providing support to community playgroups to foster future community leaders.

A review of community playgroup participation

“…Of these five studies, one was undertaken in an Australian Indigenous community (Fleer & Hammer, 2014). From the demographic details about participants that were provided, two studies were undertaken with participants predominantly from middle to upper socioeconomic backgrounds (Keam et al, 2018; Mulcahy, Parry, & Glover, 2010), a further two were undertaken in metropolitan areas (Gibson et al, 2015; Harman et al, 2014) and one in rural Victoria (Fleer & Hammer, 2014). Four out of the five studies reported the use of a theoretical orientation informing the research, including social capital (Gibson et al, 2015), interpretative phenomenological (Harman et al, 2014), cultural-historical (Fleer & Hammer, 2014) and critical social capital (Mulcahy et al, 2010) theories.…”

“…Data in the five papers were collected using individual and/or focus group interviews (Gibson et al, 2015; Harman et al, 2014; Keam et al, 2018; Mulcahy et al, 2010) and video recordings (Fleer & Hammer, 2014). Interviews focused on parents and their experiences and perspectives of their involvement at playgroup, including benefits and constraints of participation for parents, families and communities.…”

“…Three of the five studies described benefits for caregivers of participation in a community playgroup (Gibson et al, 2015; Keam et al, 2018; Mulcahy et al, 2010), and a further study (Harman et al, 2014) identified reasons mothers attend that could lead to benefits such as increased social support and new social networks. Two of these studies used social capital theories (Gibson et al, 2015; Mulcahy et al, 2010) and, although undertaken in two separate countries, reported similar findings.…”

“…Reasons provided for attending included a ‘sense of belonging’ (p. 133) and ‘validation as a mother’ (p. 134). In a study from Victoria, Australia, Keam et al (2018) used interview data from mothers involved in a broader project to consider the role of playgroups in building community capacity. Keam et al (2018) found that mothers involved in leadership roles at the playgroup considered these roles as developmental for their leadership capacity in the community.…”

“…In contrast to the supported playgroup model, community playgroups are caregiver-led with voluntary leadership and attendance (ARTD Consultants, 2008; Keam, Cook, Sinclair, & McShane, 2018). Community playgroups tend to operate in all sections of the community (McShane, 2015) and attract caregivers and children from a range of socioeconomic levels (Gregory, Harman-Smith, Sincovich, Wilson, & Brinkman, 2016).…”