Showing posts with label Community Development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Community Development. Show all posts
Monday, 6 June 2011
Schools Kill Creativity?
This video has been inspiring to me. Children truly are our future, and this talk has really captured our society today and highlights how we can change. Encouraging creativity through education can have major advantages for our future. Maybe that child who is opened up to his talents in painting will be inspired to make a living out of it - instead of feeling like he has no purpose in life and turning to a negative pathway of life?
I think this video helps to highlight the fact that we can work on community development, we can work on our economy, we can work on our environment, but to suppress our future leaders of their creative opportunities is criminal. We do not know what our future holds, so we have no right to dictate out children's lives and prepare them for a future which we are not even sure of ourselves.
A lasting thought... “Above all, we are coming to understand that the arts incarnate the creativity of a free people. When the creative impulse cannot flourish, when it cannot freely select its methods and objects, when it is deprived of spontaneity, then society severs” John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Saturday, 4 June 2011
Its All the Rage
A recent Herald article about teen drinking caught my eye, and too put it bluntly.. I was horrified!!!
The article states that:
What has caused this horrific trend?
According to Catherine Spooner of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Australia one of the causes of alcohol abuse in young people is there attitude. She states that a low sense of social responsibility, high tolerance of deviance and lack of sufficient ties to community groups such as family, school and churches can seriously affect adolescents attitudes. So what can we do?
I think - from a planning perspective - we have to look to community development and land use.
Community Development: If there is a lack of sense of community and place, then we are fighting an upwards battle. We need to create areas that focus on the demographic. We need to invest time and money into creating facilities that support young children such as youth groups, sports groups and the like. Children need a sense of social responsibility, without it they could turn to even worse things that acceptance through alcohol.
Broken families are often a major cause of adolescents rebelling - so focusing on strong family support groups is also something that can help the cause.
Land Use: Well according to a report by Robert Reynolds, Harold Holder and Paul Gruenewald of California Prevention Research Centre, alcohol availability in a community has a serious affect on the under age drinking trend. It has said that there is generally a better trend if alcohol retailers are further away from playgrounds and school facilities.
This is an example of land use planning in Bikenhead where there is serious fail
Photo Cred: Hannah Good 2011
As you can see the photo, there is an alcohol shop to the left directly across the road from Birkenhead primary school. To me this is a massive problem. Especially since the alcohol shop is open at 3pm when kids are let out of school.
Although this is just on example, mistakes like this can be the difference between an adolescent making a mistake and turning towards alcohol abuse, and a child growing up with a sense for social responsibility.
There is a lot more involved in this issue, but in my opinion, simple planning steps like land use and community development can play a huge role in a child's life.
To read more on the herald article follow this link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10715367
To read more about common causes of alcohol abuse follow: http://informahealthcare.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/doi/pdf/10.1080/09595239996329
To read more on community development and land use measures follow: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/doi/10.1046/j.1360-0443.92.6s1.8.x/pdf
The article states that:
"Children as young as nine are among hundreds of people under 16 being treated by specialist clinics for alcoholics and drug addicts in greater Auckland"
What has caused this horrific trend?
According to Catherine Spooner of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Australia one of the causes of alcohol abuse in young people is there attitude. She states that a low sense of social responsibility, high tolerance of deviance and lack of sufficient ties to community groups such as family, school and churches can seriously affect adolescents attitudes. So what can we do?
I think - from a planning perspective - we have to look to community development and land use.
Community Development: If there is a lack of sense of community and place, then we are fighting an upwards battle. We need to create areas that focus on the demographic. We need to invest time and money into creating facilities that support young children such as youth groups, sports groups and the like. Children need a sense of social responsibility, without it they could turn to even worse things that acceptance through alcohol.
Broken families are often a major cause of adolescents rebelling - so focusing on strong family support groups is also something that can help the cause.
Land Use: Well according to a report by Robert Reynolds, Harold Holder and Paul Gruenewald of California Prevention Research Centre, alcohol availability in a community has a serious affect on the under age drinking trend. It has said that there is generally a better trend if alcohol retailers are further away from playgrounds and school facilities.
This is an example of land use planning in Bikenhead where there is serious fail
As you can see the photo, there is an alcohol shop to the left directly across the road from Birkenhead primary school. To me this is a massive problem. Especially since the alcohol shop is open at 3pm when kids are let out of school.
Although this is just on example, mistakes like this can be the difference between an adolescent making a mistake and turning towards alcohol abuse, and a child growing up with a sense for social responsibility.
There is a lot more involved in this issue, but in my opinion, simple planning steps like land use and community development can play a huge role in a child's life.
To read more on the herald article follow this link: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10715367
To read more about common causes of alcohol abuse follow: http://informahealthcare.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/doi/pdf/10.1080/09595239996329
To read more on community development and land use measures follow: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.auckland.ac.nz/doi/10.1046/j.1360-0443.92.6s1.8.x/pdf
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