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Community cohesion: getting ahead or simply getting by
Paul Wells , Substance Misuse Lead, Coventry
Abstract
Many of the UK government’s objectives for communities are centered around so called ‘deprived’ areas. Here community cohesion is purported to be hampered by economic disadvantage, workless ness and substance misuse. Up to half of the drug treatment population is poorly housed and very high numbers are unemployed. Addressing these issues has been identified as key cross cutting themes for developing local drug strategies.
Research indicates that community cohesion is actually strongest in these ‘deprived’ areas, existing only within areas with a high proliferation of social and council housing. The challenge now is how to help drug users in treatment move through and successfully leave the treatment system. This requires moving away from a being a member of a community of interest, drug use, within a geographical area to joining other communities – social, work-based. However, socio-economic analyses have also suggested that it is psychologically preferable to be jobless in areas where there is significant unemployment, for reasons of reduced stigma.
This presentation will explore how social capital can be incorporated into drug treatment and used to increase the successful transition from drug using networks into non-drug using networks. The communities described above have high levels of bonding social capital which enables individuals to get by but not get ahead.
One approach to increase an individual’s ability to negotiate entry to these other communities is to increase their levels of bridging social capital which describes those more distant connections between people, characterised by weaker, but more cross-cutting ties that enable someone to get ahead in life. Research has shown that higher levels of bridging social capital are associated with better health, higher educational achievement, better employment outcomes. The challenge is not to further isolate individuals by weakening their access to existing community supports while making this transfer.
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