The Social Development Strategy: how Sweden uses Communities That Care

The Social Development Strategy sits at the heart of Communities That Care, and in Sweden it has become the most visible part of the model’s work. In a talk on the Swedish implementation, Birgitta Månsson – a CTC trainer from Sweden who today serves on the board of Prevention Sverige – described how the strategy was introduced in Swedish municipalities, and above all in the city of Malmö.

Six pillars of the Swedish implementation

Månsson presented CTC as a comprehensive model resting on six pillars of equal weight. Together they form a single framework for supporting the healthy development of young people.

1. The first pillar is the scientific foundation. Every activity and strategy rests on research findings. That evidence base gives the approach its credibility and improves its chances of working in practice.
2. The second pillar is the focus on causes rather than symptoms. CTC concentrates on the risk factors and protective factors that shape young people’s wellbeing and development. A youth survey measures those factors locally, which is what makes targeted intervention possible.
3. The third pillar is adaptation to local needs. Every community has its own challenges and strengths, and local data brings them to light. Tailoring the response ensures that the chosen strategies are relevant and effective for that particular community.
4. The fourth pillar is the selection of effective programmes. When CTC was introduced in Sweden there was no national list of evidence-based programmes. The initiators therefore turned to international registers such as Blueprints and began importing effective programmes and adapting them for Sweden.
5. The fifth pillar is community mobilisation. CTC brings together a wide range of actors – schools and libraries, associations and public authorities – to develop and carry out a shared vision. That breadth of participation builds commitment and keeps initiatives going.
6. The sixth pillar, and in Månsson’s view the most important, is the concept of bonding. The Social Development Strategy aims to build strong bonds between children and their social environment, which it treats as the key to healthy development.

The Social Development Strategy at the core

At the centre of CTC stands the Social Development Strategy, which Månsson described as a kind of recipe for the healthy development of young people. The recipe has three essential ingredients:

1. The first is meaningful opportunities for involvement. Children and young people need opportunities that matter, that give them the sense of contributing something of value.
2. The second is teaching the skills they need to use those opportunities successfully. Without the skills, an opportunity leads to frustration rather than a sense of achievement.
3. The third is recognition of effort, progress and success. Recognition reinforces positive behaviour and motivates further effort.

The product of this recipe is bonding: a sense of belonging and attachment to family, school and community. Bonding in turn makes young people willing to share the values and beliefs of the people they are bonded to. In Sweden those values are defined as respect for the equal worth of all people, helping one another, taking responsibility, perseverance and joy.

The model works in both directions, and Månsson was explicit about that. Criminal groups use the same principles to recruit young people: they offer opportunities to take part, teach the skills that are needed and give recognition. The result is a bond to the group and the adoption of its antisocial values. The lesson for prosocial adults is that they have to run the same process better, and more deliberately, if they want to win young people for a healthy path.

Putting it into practice in Sweden

Sweden took an unusual route to spreading the strategy. When CTC was introduced in Malmö, no tested programmes were available. The initiators decided to treat the Social Development Strategy itself as a programme, and developed a training format for anchoring it in organisations and institutions of every kind.

Månsson described a structured nine-step implementation process designed to ensure that the strategy is not only taught but practised. It begins with careful preparation and a meeting with the leadership of the organisation concerned. After the training session itself come follow-up meetings and support during implementation. Once a year, progress is reported to the community board.

To safeguard quality, certified trainers are prepared for the role and have to meet defined requirements. They attend training, run their first sessions alongside experienced trainers, and must deliver at least four sessions a year to keep their certification.

Participants first learn the theory behind the strategy. They then draw up a personal action plan for their work with one child they interact with regularly. Finally, in groups, they work out how the strategy can be anchored in their own organisation.

The reach in Malmö is striking. More than 3,000 people have been trained across the city’s five CTC areas, among them staff of libraries, urban planning departments, non-governmental organisations, schools and swimming pools, as well as property owners and many other organisations.

The idea: every adult can make a positive contribution, and the more people apply the strategy, the greater the effect on the community.

The early results are encouraging. Månsson reported that in one CTC area, 18 of 24 risk factors had fallen after two years. That is a practice finding from a single area, not a controlled evaluation, but it points in the direction one would expect if a broad, community-based approach and the systematic spread of the Social Development Strategy are doing what they are meant to do.

Integration into the CTC process

The strategy is woven into the five-phase CTC process rather than run alongside it. In phase two, members of the community board are introduced to the strategy and develop personal action plans. In phase three, a longer workshop on working with the strategy together follows, and a Social Development Strategy working group is formed. The promotive activities identified there are included in the resource assessment and finally written into the action plan in phase four.

This ensures that the strategy is implemented as an integral part of the whole CTC process, not in isolation. It complements the prevention programmes that address specific risk factors, and it forms the promotive half of the action plan.

Challenges and successes

Implementing the strategy in Sweden was not straightforward. At the outset there were no evidence-based programmes and no national list of effective interventions. The initiators had to improvise and use the Social Development Strategy itself as their programme in order to begin prevention work at all.

A second challenge was sustainability. The nine-step implementation process and the certification of trainers are the measures meant to ensure that the strategy is anchored in organisations for the long term, rather than applied once and forgotten.

Despite this, the successes are notable. In the area where the strategy was applied most intensively, 18 of 24 risk factors declined. The range of organisations that use the strategy is just as remarkable: schools and pre-schools, libraries and cultural institutions, property owners and the police. The strategy has proved to be a flexible instrument that can be applied in very different contexts.

A model with potential

The Swedish experience with the Social Development Strategy as part of Communities That Care shows that a scientifically grounded, community-based approach to prevention can produce change. The focus on strengthening protective factors, and the systematic spread of a simple but powerful strategy, has contributed to the wellbeing of young people in the participating communities.

The model can travel. Its three principles – opportunities, skills and recognition – are universal, and they can be applied in very different cultural and organisational settings. The Swedish experience offers a rare, detailed view of what putting them into practice involves and where the difficulties lie.

The community-based approach deserves particular emphasis. The idea that “nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something” captures why broad participation in prevention matters. When as many adults as possible in a community apply the Social Development Strategy, they create a supportive environment in which young people can develop well.

Månsson’s presentation showed how a research-based strategy can be put into practice, and what it can achieve when it is implemented systematically and at scale. For anyone in Europe working on the prevention and wellbeing of young people, the Swedish experience with CTC is a source of practical inspiration – and a reminder that the promotive half of the model deserves as much attention as the programmes.