2005 · Study · English
From Behind Dikes and Dunes: Communities that Care in the Netherlands
Jonkman, H., Junger-Tas, J., van Dijk, B.
Jonkman, H., Junger-Tas, J., van Dijk, B. (2005). From Behind Dikes and Dunes: Communities that Care in the Netherlands. Children & Society, 19(2), 105–116. doi.org/10.1002/chi.865
Summary
Overview article on the introduction of Communities That Care in the Netherlands, the first European country to trial the system. The authors sketch the socio-historical background of the initiative, explain the rationale and starting point of the Dutch experiment and describe the tools used in the process, among them the youth survey, the community profile and the programme menu. They then discuss the implementation of CTC and some of the problems encountered in trying to introduce the approach into Dutch structures, before summarising the main outcomes of the first, process-oriented evaluation of the pilot. Published in Children & Society, the paper is a primary source on how a US-designed prevention system was first transplanted into a European welfare state, and its account of the early obstacles, above all the limited supply of tested programmes, anticipates findings that the later Dutch and US comparison studies would confirm.