The Dunedin Safer Schools Safer Communities Initiative: A Narrative Approach to Community Collaboration.

Abstract

Based In 1997, a number of community agencies in Dunedin came together to express their concern at the disproportionate number of young people coming to their attention suffering from the profound effects of bullying and harassment on their lives. These concerns developed further, and as a result the Dunedin Safer Schools Safer Communities (SSSC) initiative was born. Central to the working of the initiative were the ideas and practices of narrative therapy. Some interesting issues arose as we tried to maintain those ideas and practices in a collaborative context in the area of bullying/harassment in schools. The negotiation of the power relation proved to be the most difficult aspect of the work of the initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of New Zealand Journal of Counselling is the property of New Zealand Association of Counsellors and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)