I am honored to be invited to present at this year’s Life Paths Research Center ResilienceCon being held in Nashville April 14-16. According to its website (Life Paths Research Center), “Life Paths Research Center is a research institute devoted to learning about the ways that people develop personal strengths and cope with adversity, especially in Appalachia and other rural communities.” I am grateful for Life Paths’ presence in the region and pleased to be sharing time with the great folks working there.
Growing up in the Piedmont (“foot of the mountains”) region of Georgia and a part-time resident of western North Carolina for the past 15 years, I have a lifetime of personal experiences in the rural South, and in Appalachia specifically. Appalachia is a region of stunning natural beauty and vast outdoor recreation resources, mountains stacked upon mountains, crystal clear streams and rivers – places to ski, mountain bike, walk for days (months for AT through-hikers), paddle. There are numerous assets beyond the recreational ones as well. It is a magical place and its sanctity to Native Americans who long occupied the region is palpable.
But Appalachia is also infamous for its staggering poverty, a condition that has certainly improved but in no way abated. In virtually every state containing a portion of Appalachia, 2016 poverty rates in the Appalachian region significantly exceeded the national average, and often substantially exceeded the balance of the state the region is located in! (Appalachian Regional Commission – https://www.arc.gov/index.asp; see also, Fahe – https://fahe.org/). As is true anywhere extreme poverty is found, an array of other social ills follows – substance abuse and crime, unemployment and homelessness, substandard education and social services… and the list goes on. At the same time, it is a region populated by amazing, hard-working, creative and brilliant men and women – I’ve been fortunate to know and work with many. Connecting people with the assets in their area is a critical first step to enhancing well-being, building resilience and strengthening community.
ResilienceCon has shifted away from a focus on adversity toward strengths-based approaches to confront them. My research over the past three years at Sheffield Hallam University was centered around bringing strengths-based approaches to bear with people facing a range of psycho-socio-economic challenges, work continuing through PXH50. I am excited to be involved with ResilienceCon and the opportunity to share some of my work with colleagues in beautiful and vibrant Nashville.
I will be giving two presentations, the first in the dynamic 20×20 format. If you are unfamiliar with the format, it consists of 20 slides advancing at 20 seconds for a total presentation time of 6:40! As I say, it is a very dynamic approach. This presentation is entitled REC-CONNECT: An Exploration of a Community-based Participatory Research Project to Promote Health and Well-being in Sheffield, UK. I will be talking about the REC-CONNECT research project we conducted funded by The Health Foundation and in partnership with Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust, the City of Sheffield, and Sheffield Alcohol Support Services. The project was a feasibility study to design and evaluate a peer-supported system to connect people new to recovery from alcohol and/or drug abuse to pro-social assets in the community, enhancing their social and recovery capital. We did this using a collection of innovative research methods, including Asset Based Community Development, Assertive Linkage and Social Identity Mapping, measuring change with the REC-CAP tool designed by Professor David Best, who was the principal investigator for REC-CONNECT, and his team, of which I was a member.
The second presentation, equally interesting and entirely different, is entitled Translational Criminology and Pracademia: Bridging the Practice-Research Gap. I am excited to be presenting this session along with my colleague Susan Broderick. Susan is an extraordinary person – former NYC prosecutor, Georgetown University professor, and founder of Bridges to Recovery (Bridges to Recovery). This session will be a panel discussion and will focus on the interaction of practitioners and academics, the transition from one field to the other, and how the two can operate effectively and productively in the shared space between to bring evidence-based practices from the research community into application in the practice community, and to show how practice can and should inform research. Both Susan and I share the experience of transitioning from practicing law to teaching and researching in law and criminology (and back) and we will discuss lessons we learned and continue learning in and from those transitions. So while in the 20×20 presentation I will be able to share some specifics of my research experience, in this panel session I will be able to share my legal practice and academic experiences. Single conference, tripartite me – pretty cool!
There is still time to register for this conference if you’re interested. You can find more information about it in the link above. Hope to see you in Nashville in April!
Be well, Michael