Students tackle the issue of a sense of purpose among young people
How can community organisations strengthen the sense of purpose among young people in Leiden? Students of Religious Studies undertook this project on behalf of the municipality, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) and the De Bakkerij community centre. On Tuesday 16 June, they presented their final findings during the ‘Presenting with the City’ event.
The Religious Studies programme has been involved for several years in the ‘Learning with the City’ project, in which students from Leiden’s vocational, higher professional and university institutions explore current issues in collaboration with community organisations. ‘In previous years, I sometimes had to approach community centres myself for an assignment, but this year we were contacted by the local council and the church,’ says Assistant Professor Elpine de Boer. ‘It’s great that they thought of the Religious Studies programme themselves.’
Meaning in Leiden
The clients’ topic tied in seamlessly with the course: meaning for young people in Leiden. ‘It’s certainly quite a broad topic,’ says student Jip Brouwer from behind her table at the information fair, where interested parties can find out more about the project. ‘It was up to us to make it more manageable, so in the end we drew up five different sub-questions. For example, I looked into what organisations in Leiden are already doing in terms of finding meaning and how cooperation between them can be encouraged.’
‘Together with a fellow student, I sent out questionnaires about how young people experience meaning,’ adds her fellow student Jonas van Leeuwen. ‘That wasn’t necessarily about happiness, but about questions such as when people experience meaning in their lives, who they turn to when they have life questions, and whether they attach a lot of importance to social contact.’
Other students looked into the willingness of Leiden residents to help, the search for meaning among Muslim young people, and the requirements for an environment in which young people feel comfortable discussing life questions. ‘For a long time, the research seemed to remain very broad,’ says De Boer. ‘It was only during the presentation to the local council and the PKN that it all suddenly came together.’
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Luc Sels during the panel discussion at ‘Presenting with the City’, which explored a future in which learning, research and social innovation go hand in hand. -
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Science and practice
‘Of course, it was different having to draw up an advisory report now rather than writing a university research paper,’ says Jonas, ‘but we’d already covered all the techniques, such as conducting surveys, so that helped. I particularly enjoyed delving into the subject, partly because such a clear distinction was made between mental health and a sense of purpose – something that doesn’t always happen these days.’ De Boer: ‘We read a lot of academic literature, including on what a sense of purpose actually is, because whilst there is indeed a link with mental health, it isn’t exactly the same thing. The advantage of working with university students is that they’re keen to get to the bottom of that distinction.’
Eager to see the results
Their client Peterhans van den Broek from De Bakkerij is looking forward to the results of all this research. ‘They’re still writing up their findings, but I’ll receive their results before the end of the month. I’m very curious, because their research question is so closely related to what we’re working on.’
‘Learning with the City’ is an educational innovation in Leiden and a collaboration between Leiden University, Leiden University of Applied Sciences, mboRijnland, Leiden City Council and civil society organisations. In consultation with residents and professionals, students tackle pressing issues facing the city. During ‘Presenting with the City’, all the students involved presented their research.