Hi all
The overall goal of our community and mentor programs is to produce community environmental stewards. We know such a goal has benefit for society as a whole, but would like to investigate how becoming more conservation-minded and taking on environmental stewardship has other benefits to the community. Does anyone know of any research done in this area? In communities with youth at risk for violence, for example, does environmental stewardship, valuing and protecting the environment, correlate with an increased sense of community, lessening violence? Another - we know caring for animals tends to produce more empathy towards other people as well, possibly lessening bullying. Does learning to care for habitats and ecosystems in a community result in more positive feelings about the community, perhaps reducing graffiti or vandalism? What are your thoughts? Are there indirect social benefits to fostering sustainable behavior?
Linda Wilson
Director,
Audience Research and Evaluation
John G. Shedd Aquarium
1200 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60605
[email protected]
PH (312) 692 3261
FAX (312) 939-8677
Environmental Stewardship Influencing Community?
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You might want to look at the work Majora Carter is doing in the South Bronx--perhaps someone is tracking the relationship between "the greening" of the S. Bronx and lowered incidences of crime or violence.
Liz Goldman
Dover Energy Advisory Committee
Dover, NH 03820
I believe you will find that there has been some research done in these areas. COEO (the Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario) recently produced a summary of research which include references to some of this research. The executive summary is on their website but I believe it is only in hardcopy which must be purchased from them. Related research around urban planning and green cities might also help. I suggest looking under these topics and in the journals and conference proceedings relating to this. You might want to check out research by Bill Sullivan - specializes in understanding how contact with nature affects human functioning. He is co-founder of the Human-Environment Research Laboratory, and is Associate Professor & Director of the Environmental Council, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has done studies on urban inner city Chicago and the impacts of green spaces on family violence, female empowerment (including teen pregnancy, etc.) and related issues. Evergreen Canada has also documented some case studies - http://www.evergreen.ca/en/cg/cg-case1.pdf
Merebeth Switzer
National Education Coordinator
Ducks Unlimited Canada
Hello Linda.
I can't cite any scientific research. However, anecdotally, one of our past programs was the Youth Environmental Reclamation Service. It worked with youth at risk and young offenders - community service hours were used for environmental projects (e.g. cleaning up illegal dumpsites). Many of the youth who participated became engaged about environmental and community issues and were quite enthusiastic about it. Some continued as volunteers once they had completed their community service hours. Here is a link to a program summary on our web site: http://www.clean.ns.ca/default.asp?mn=1.377.389.438.441 The program was run by Tina Kane; you can contact her at [email protected] for more information.
Regards,
Nancy Webber
Program Officer
Clean Nova Scotia
902.420.7931
[email protected]
www.clean.ns.ca
I posted the question on another listserv. Here is an answer: I'm not sure what the person means exactly by ecosystems, if he means a community garden, or a group that focuses on caring for the nature found in a community then that would seem to fall into the social cohesion model. So even if there hasn't been any direct work looking at the groups who focus on ecosystems he can still make the argument to the municipal authorities that more participation in community groups has been shown to be linked to greater social cohesion and greater collective efficacy which reduces crime levels (which conceivably includes graffiti). Jeffery Morenoff does a lot of work on this as well as Robert Sampson, although I'm not sure which of their work focuses on formal social groups. You'll have to check around. Below are some places to start if you want to follow this line of reasoning:
Sampson, Robert J., Stephen Raudenbush, and Felton Earls. 1997. Neighborhoods and Violent Crime: A Multilevel Study of Collective Efficacy. *Science* 277:918-24
Sampson Robert J. Jeffrey Morenoff, and Felton Earls. 1999. "Beyond Social Capital: Spatial Dynamics of Collective Efficacy for Children." *American Sociological Review* 64: 633-660.
Morenoff, Jeffrey, Robert J. Sampson, and Stephen Raudenbush. 2001. "Neighborhood Inequality, Collective Efficacy, and the Spatial Dynamics of Urban Violence." *Criminology* 39:517-560.
-- Randolph Haluza-DeLay, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Sociology
The King's University College
Edmonton, AB, T6B 2H3
Canada 1-780-465-3500 ext8063
http://www.kingsu.net/page.aspx?ID=97746