Fostering resilience in young people with intellectual disabilities using a ‘settings’ approach

Whitelaw, S. , Bell, A., Mackay, A. and Hall, H. (2023) Fostering resilience in young people with intellectual disabilities using a ‘settings’ approach. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, (doi: 10.1177/17446295231168186) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

The need to foster resilience amongst young people with intellectual disabilities is increasingly recognised within policy. Critically, understanding of the actual means by which this aspiration might be most sensitively and effectively met is considered weak. This paper reports on an exploratory case-study of a social enterprise community café – The Usual Place - that through the promotion of employability, seeks to promote resilience amongst its young ‘trainees’ with intellectual disabilities. Two research questions were set: “how is ‘resilience’ conceptualized within the organisation” and “what features within the organisation are significant in fostering resilience”? We identify a range of significant features associated with being able to successfully foster resilience – the need for a foundational ‘whole organisation’(settings) approach based on high levels of participation and choice; the negotiation of a constructive dynamic tension between ‘support’ and ‘exposure’; and the embedding of these actions in embodied actions and day-to-day organisational activities.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was funded by the National Centre for Resilience grant number NCRR2022- 006.
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Bell, Mr Anthony and Mackay, Miss Ailsa and Whitelaw, Dr Alexander
• Authors: Whitelaw, S., Bell, A., Mackay, A., and Hall, H.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social & Environmental Sustainability
• Journal Name: Journal of Intellectual Disabilities
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 1744-6295
• ISSN (Online): 1744-6309
• Published Online: 28 March 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Journal of Intellectual Disabilities 2023
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License