Please note:
This course is taught in English. For Dutch speaking students, parts of the course may be offered in Dutch. See the course manual for further details.

In this course Prevention 3.0 students:
 
gain knowledge:

acquire the skills:
to cooperate with other students in designing an innovative intervention (prevention 3.0)  based on scientific knowledge for a specific local context. In this creative group assignment students need to achieve a balance between relevant scientific theories and empirical knowledge on evidence based interventions (prevention 1.0) on the one hand and the prevention 2.0 (legislative) principles on upbringing and educational issues and the vision and needs of professional stakeholders and end-users in the local context on the other hand. The prevention 3.0 design for an preventive intervention can also be constructed for an international context.

Relationship between assignments and course goals
Starting the course with the group assignment, students learn to cooperate and choose a local context and issue to write the group assignment. The scientific  literature and the lectures on prevention in the family, school, early child care and community context provide insights to incorporate in the assignment. By giving and receiving peer feedback and feedback by the teacher according to standardized rubrics students learn to apply both perspectives on several youth issues. With the individual take home (open-book) exam students are asked during a 3-hour assignment to show their acquired knowledge and skills in analyzing a given local case by prevention 1.0 as well as by prevention 2.0 perspectives and to propose a balanced prevention design based on both perspectives (prevention 3.0). During the closing session students are challenged to present their design via a pitch as well as a group presentation to pursue ‘’a virtual grant’’ in a group contest.

This course deals with the question of how educational, community and psychological perspectives on prevention, and empirical knowledge can be integrated in a new prevention framework; Prevention 3.0. To that end, we will examine a range of historic perspectives on prevention. Taking the Dutch situation as a starting point, students will learn to apply these approaches to social youth policies or perspectives on prevention. However, the approaches will also be relevant in other cultural and legislative settings.

Prevention 1.0: focuses on developing academic perspectives and empirical knowledge of prevention strategies, based on classic ‘prevention science’ – an academic field with its own conceptual framework (i.e., at-risk model) and empirical knowledge base. We will also consider evidence-based preventive interventions.

Prevention 2.0: primarily concentrates on demedicalisation and alleviating burdens, promoting well-being instead of reducing risks, emphasizing the 'strengths of the individual', positive psychology, and the importance of the ‘pedagogic civil society' (De Winter, 2011). A significant addition here is collaboration between family members, volunteers and professionals (i.e., needs assessment).

Prevention 3.0: The Prevention 1.0 and 2.0 perspectives each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the challenge is to link both perspectives to each other and to develop preventive interventions, supported by the academic empirical knowledge gained in Prevention 1.0, within a specific social/cultural and legislative context and by taking into account the basic principles examined in Prevention 2.0.

This course is designed hand-in-hand with a transformation: a new approach to supporting, helping and caring for young people and families based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1990). According to the UNCRC “Every child must be able to grow up healthily and in safety, develop their talents, and participate in society to the best of their ability”. Parents have primary responsibility in this, with relevant authorities coming into action if the parents are unable to meet this responsibility. In the Dutch context the principles of the UNCRC 1990 convention are translated in a new Dutch Youth Act (2015). This Act places responsibility for the care of children and adolescents in the hands of local authorities. The transition (decentralisation, shifting financial resources and the administrative framework from the central government, provincial governments and healthcare insurance companies to local authorities) to the new system took place in 2015. Two major starting points of the new policy are 1) prevention and 2) demedicalisation/normalisation and promoting well-being. Instead of the former used at-risk vision in youth care, local authorities are challenged to stimulate and provide more preventive interventions in and near the local contexts of children and their caregivers (in the community and schools). A similar transition took place within the educational system. Since 2014 schools in the Netherlands have a duty of care; to offer all pupils an appropriate place. This is called inclusive education (‘Passend Onderwijs’), which shows strong links with the new Youth Act and forces local youth care teams to cooperate with care team within schools.

The legislative context of the UNCRC and the Dutch Youth Act requires professionals who can work on developing an pedagogical infrastructure in line with these goals, and who can develop and evaluate appropriate new preventive interventions.

In this course, you will learn how to apply the perspectives of Prevention 1.0 and Prevention 2.0 to a currently relevant societal youth issue in the field of prevention, as well as how to combine different perspectives on prevention.

In summary, this course is about the targeted prevention of problem behavior (e.g., aggression, depression), of social problems (e.g., dropping out of school, delinquency), and risk behavior (e.g., substance abuse, unhealthy behaviour) and the encouragement of a healthy lifestyle. Scientifically proven methods for identifying risks, parenting support and preventive interventions are available for this. However, many youth problems emanate from the way in which society has organised care for and the approach towards children and young people. For example, what facilities are arranged by local authorities to help children develop talents, how are young people involved in their local living environments, how do you promote integration, and what is being done about exclusion? These kind of issues are influenced by youth policies, and for that reason the new Dutch policy is an important reason for innovation in Prevention 3.0.
With the help of scientific literature, policy memoranda, and a series of seven lectures, this course offers an in-depth examination of the options for prevention and how they are organised in the context of the new Dutch youth policy. In an assignment, students apply this knowledge into the design of an innovative preventive intervention for a concrete currently relevant youth issue.