Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- two Family roles in community matters
- three Schools in communities
- four Young people, space, facilities and activities
- five Preventative policing, community safety and community confidence
- six Family health and neighbourhood conditions
- seven Families move into work: skills, training and tax credits
- eight Housing and regeneration
- nine How the areas are changing
- Index
nine - How the areas are changing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Acknowledgements
- one Introduction
- two Family roles in community matters
- three Schools in communities
- four Young people, space, facilities and activities
- five Preventative policing, community safety and community confidence
- six Family health and neighbourhood conditions
- seven Families move into work: skills, training and tax credits
- eight Housing and regeneration
- nine How the areas are changing
- Index
Summary
I would just say that for me personally, things have improved. It's hard to make a judgement isn't it. But I know lots of people with kids. I know that things have improved for them, and the whole general look of the place, there's not the derelict sites anymore.(Joan, West City)
New faces have moved in. There's more foreign people. Before there was a lot of white people in the area, now it's a mixture – it's changed a lot. The children have got somewhere to play football and basketball in the cage. Before they were always hanging around.(Naomi, East Docks)
Slowly but surely. More focus on young kids – things need to be put in place for them, instead of them playing on the streets. We still need stuff for kids. (Patsy, Kirkside East)
The kids are still hanging about out there, still not good. To be honest, the environment has improved, but anti-social behaviour is a problem. (Kamal, The Valley)
Introduction: “Getting better slowly”
One basic question we asked on our first visit and on each subsequent visit was how families thought the areas were changing, what was getting better and what was worse. In this final chapter we gather the parents’ views on the changes in their neighbourhoods resulting from government efforts, the changes at community level and how changes had affected their families. Parents’ views are not always consistent, and the 200 families express a wide range of opinions, varying not just between North and South, inner and outer areas, but also between different types of families with different individual experiences. In spite of these differences, many clear patterns emerge. The 200 families we visited every year over eight years found that the areas had changed in many ways for the better. Yet the families still found it difficult to bring up children in these areas because much more remained to be done and some fundamental social problems seemed to be intractable.
Family futures examines seven themes in turn: why community matters; school as community anchors; young people, space and activity; crime, safety and prevention; family ill health and neighbourhood supports; work, training and tax credits; and housing and regeneration. Neighbourhood-level interventions around these themes, supported by government over 10 years from 1998 to 2008, aimed at transforming conditions.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Family FuturesChildhood and Poverty in Urban Neighbourhoods, pp. 265 - 290Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2011