Regional Networks for the Social Welfare Domain The Hague & Leiden

Centre of Expertise Governance of Urban Transitions

A group of people in a circle form with their hands above each other

How do you deal with the challenges of your profession as a professional? Which insights from science can help you further? And how do you share knowledge and experiences? In the Werkplaatsen Sociaal Domein, researchers and professionals work together on specific issues from practice. Since January 2020, the research group Urban Ageing participates in the Regional Networks for the Social Welfare Domain (RNSWD) The Hague & Leiden.

The RNSWD The Hague & Leiden is a cooperation between municipalities, research groups, degree programmes of The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Leiden University of Applied Sciences and partners in the field of welfare and care. Within the workshop, the Urban Ageing research group works together with the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship research group of Leiden University of Applied Sciences. The strength of this learning, working and research community is the combination of research, education, practice and policy. There are 15 regional departments of RNSWD in the Netherlands. In addition to their own regional agendas, they work together on a number of national themes.

Themes

The themes of the RNSWD The Hague & Leiden focus on the following questions until 2022:

  1. Integral approach to multi-problem issues: How can we better cooperate on multi-problem issues from different perspectives?

  2. Poverty and debt: How can people with little income have a good life?

  3. The connection between the health domain and social domain: How can (interprofessional) cooperation be improved?

  4. Living at home longer: What do people in vulnerable situations need in order to live at home longer (and again)?

The Workshop contributes to the development of a regional network and the strengthening of the knowledge infrastructure around social issues.

Inclusion and participation

The ultimate goal of the RNSWD The Hague & Leiden is to promote inclusion and the opportunities for participation of residents in vulnerable situations. The starting point is the living environment of residents and/or clients and their immediate surroundings.

Research

In the workshop, researchers and professionals work together on concrete issues from professional practice. In processes of knowledge co-production, people work together on an approach to the issues raised that does justice to the practical situation, but is firmly embedded in what is already known in science about the issue in question.

Education

In activities such as learning workshops, inspiration sessions, work field meetings and knowledge cafes, participants learn from each other in a regional context and come up with added value for the various target groups, including social professionals, policymakers, lecturers and students of social work and residents. The knowledge gained is used to train new professionals.

Practice

De RNSWD is a learning, working and research community, in which the professional field is an important partner, with whom we work together on knowledge co-production.

Result

The workshop helps professionals in the social domain to better cope with the challenges of their profession by empowering them and offering insights from science that they can put into practice. Activities result in reports, advice, books, methodologies, working methods and teaching modules. The (future) professionals in the social domain have access to this knowledge and these skills and these are passed on to education and other knowledge institutions.

Meer informatie

The Dutch-language website of the RNSWD has more information on the workshop, the various themes and the results achieved by the various research and student projects.

Funding

The project is financed by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and ZonMw.