Social and community development

A focus group is a group discussion led by a facilitator. Participants are asked to share their thoughts on a particular topic, based on their personal opinions and experience. They are also encouraged to react to the views expressed by other participants and to say where they stand in relation to those views.

In the model proposed in this guide, focus group participants are selected on the basis of criteria that ensure the life setting under study is well represented. This approach guarantees that the groups provide a wide range of viewpoints and perceptions, and can thus help to shed light on the different opinions and degree of consensus that exist on a given topic, such as the feeling of safety in a regional county municipality (RCM) or a municipality. In safety diagnoses, focus groups are used primarily to gather the opinions and perceptions of a population about the following safety-related topics: the safety of a particular life setting, the feeling of safety, and pro…

Like discussion groups, direct observation and literature reviews, semi-structured interviews can be used to gather qualitative information. Interviews of this type are suited to working with small samples and are effective for studying specific situations or for supplementing and validating information derived from other sources used for making safety diagnoses. In addition, since they provide access to perceptions and opinions, they are useful for gaining insight into problems that are not perceptible immediately or are more difficult to observe, but that nonetheless cause concern in certain areas or in certain segments of the population.

During safety diagnoses, semi-structured interviews should be used to explore crime and safety problems perceived by representatives of the population, safety experts or other key informants. In planning the interviews, it is essential to take into account decisions about your vision and objectives, the life setting under study, the targe…

Generally speaking, surveys are used to obtain three main types of information:

• information on the characteristics of individuals, including their personal characteristics (age, marital status, level of education, etc.), behaviour (amount of time spent doing certain activities, etc.) and living environment (workplace, housing, etc.);
• information on the opinions of individuals (how safe or unsafe they feel, what they think about certain facts, ideas, programs or events, etc.);
• information on their past personal experiences (victimization, etc.).

The data gathered during a survey can be grouped and analyzed to detect trends or associations, such as whether certain groups within a population (e.g. the members of a particular age group, men or women) or people in certain areas share a particular opinion to a greater extent than other groups or people do.

Surveys conducted as part of a safety diagnosis are aimed at painting a port…

In making safety diagnoses, it is sometimes useful to estimate or quantify certain behaviours or environmental features through direct observation of life settings. This observation method makes it possible to gather and analyze information on a series of problem safety situations related to the characteristics or behaviour of individuals (incivility) or to certain characteristics of the physical environment (disorder). Generally speaking, it requires the use of an observation log for entering information on the safety situations under study.

Even though it is difficult to foresee all of the problem safety situations that can arise in life settings, we have singled out a certain number on the basis of the scientific literature. All of these situations10 are included in the observation log proposed in Appendix 4:

• Aggressive, intimidating or annoying behaviour by certain individuals.
• Congregation of young people or adults who engage in annoying behavio…

Promoting safety and preventing crime through a setting-oriented approach requires a structured procedure for planning the various activities to be carried out. The procedure involves mobilizing the population and intersectoral partners, making safety diagnoses and drawing up action plans. The Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities was prepared to assist with this procedure. It comprises several tools, including the Safety Diagnosis Handbook and six methodology guides. The document Turning Safety Diagnoses Into Action Plans: A Guide for Local Communities was prepared in addition to the tool kit, to facilitate the process of translating diagnoses into effective action plans.

The present document, Guide to Analyzing Crime Using Official Statistics – 2nd edition, is one of the methodology guides included in the Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities. The goal of this guide is to enable local communities to use official crime statistics for making safety diagno…

The Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) and the Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport (MELS) asked the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) to produce a decision support tool. This new tool is intended to help managers and staff in the education and health networks to select the promotion and prevention practices that will be most effective in fostering educational success, health and well-being among students in Québec schools.

The document entitled Educational Success, Health and Well-Being: Effective Action in Schools – Synthesis of Recommendations is one component of this tool. It presents a synthesis of the national and international scientific knowledge, in the fields of education science, social science and health, underpinning the main recommendations concerning effective health promotion and prevention practices in schools. The synthesis is presented in the form of information sheets on eleven topics that are reflec…

In Québec, nearly one in five children suffers from excess weight and the situation has greatly deteriorated over the past 25 years. This situation results from a large number of individual and environmental factors, including the food environment around schools. In the United States, a number of studies have documented the substantial presence of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores around schools. These types of food outlets are also more numerous around schools in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In Québec, aside from the island of Montréal, not much is known about the food landscape around educational institutions or around schools in rural areas.

Method

Ten- and fifteen-minute walking zones were defined around public schools in Québec (n = 2302). Fast-food restaurants (n = 1787) and convenience stores (n = 3446) included in these zones were selected using a business directory and names of business. Logistic regression an…

Like focus groups, direct observation and literature reviews, semi-structured interviews can be used to gather qualitative information. This guide to organizing semi-structured interviews is part of the Safety Diagnosis Tool Kit for Local Communities. It has been prepared for people who want to plan and conduct this type of interview with key informants during safety diagnoses. The procedure described here may also be used in other contexts provided an appropriate interview plan is designed.

During safety diagnoses, semi-structured interviews should be used to explore crime and safety problems perceived by key informants. In particular, they should focus on the following topics: crime and victimization, disorderly conduct and incivility (nuisances), the perception of safety or the feeling of safety and the assessment of public services.

This guide was prepared for people who wish to organize focus groups as a part of a safety diagnosis process. However, the procedure described here may also be used with focus groups on other issues, provided an appropriate discussion plan is designed.

This abstract offers highlight of a knowledge synthesis on the implementation process for policies, programs or measures favourable to healthy eating in the schools. The data reported concerns schools at the elementary and secondary levels. The synthesis reveals a portrait of the favourable factors and obstacles to implementing school food policies, as well as describing a systematic approach to maximize the chances of success of this implementation. This knowledge will be useful to any individual or organization who wishes to contribute to the success of the Québec Framework Policy on Healthy Eating and Active Living, Going the healthy route at school (Québec, 2007).

This synthesis documents experiences of implementing policies, programs or measures to promote healthy eating in the schools in socio-economic and cultural contexts comparable to the situation in Canada. This data has been made accessible so that this knowledge can be applied within the Québec context.

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