Tied Together: Building Relational Well‐being and Reducing Social Isolation Through Place‐based Parent Education

Abstract

Recent research has begun to shed light on the role community organizations can play in fostering relational well-being, particularly among low-income parents living high-poverty neighborhoods. However, less well understood are the organizational, programmatic, and neighborhood factors that contribute to the formation of new social network connections among participants in these settings or the nature of connections developed. This qualitative study examines the efforts of one neighborhood-based human service organization to counter the effects of social isolation through a place-based parent education initiative. Findings from 69 interviews suggest that for participants the program served as transformative learning environment that challenged existing narratives about public housing residents and fostered the development of a positive shared identity as parents. Formal structures and informal opportunities in the neighborhood supported the development and maintenance of new social connections and served as the foundation for an ongoing community of practice among participants. C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Special thanks go to the staff of the Tied Together Program and the Martha O'Bryan Center. We are also grateful also to the Tennessee Governor's Office of Children's Care Coordination and the Center for Community Studies at Vanderbilt University for their support of this research. Finally, we wish to acknowledge the following graduate students for their contributions to this project:Place-based programs offer the opportunity to enhance well-being across multiple levels. Prilleltensky (2005) defines well-being as "a positive state of affairs in which personal, relational, and collective needs and aspirations of individuals and communities are Journal of Community Psychology

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