This is an intensive community development research project in and around one of the schools in one of the mixed neighbourhoods in our city. It will include both focus group work and action methods with the board of trustees and associated organisations. It will explore the connections between family, school and community in terms of the healthy and successful development of children. In particular, it will focus upon exploring the changing role of primary schools in an environment where the availability of social services is reducing and where families are simultaneously finding it increasingly difficult to meet the needs of themselves and their children. This links to the current movement in NZ to locate support services such as social work within school environments.
Community is a word which can justify a multitude of sins.
Terms such as community and social capital have been used to justify current social and economic policies that expect communities and families to provide for their own. This will include the mapping of both formal and informal networks, organisations and groupings. The research will use action methods to explore the issues for families and their care of their children in this community and to identify and develop a range of solution-focused responses to some of the issues raised. From birth to death IV . Institute of Policy Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.