Table 1
The sampled teams.
| SCT’S NAME | SCT’S FOCUS | COMPOSITION | STC’S STAKEHOLDERS |
|---|---|---|---|
| School (SCH) | Focuses on vocational schools in the city. Supports students (age 16–24 year) to find and keep suitable housing, since having a safe living place is a critical factor in preventing school dropout. | 1 Coordinator 1 Behavioral expert 1 Expert Social Support Act (SSA) |
|
| Sport (SPO) | Focuses on sport clubs in the city. Aims to support young football club members, as well as non-members and their caretakers. In this setting young people likely develop social skills and a healthy lifestyle as a supporting condition for social health and well-being. | 1 Coordinator 3 Social workers |
|
| Street (STR) | Focuses on a multi-problem street in a neighbourhood. Here, the SCT tries to strengthen young adults’ social networks and to learn about what is happening on the street and in people’s home. | 1 Coordinator/social worker 2 Youth experts 1 Social worker 1 Expert SSA |
|
Figure 1
The SCTs’ bottom-up, incremental service integration approach.
Table 2
Self-assessment format.
| BIWEEKLY QUESTIONNAIRE: QUESTIONS AND SELF-ASSESSMENT SCORES | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per stakeholder-related goal | Describe your activities and their effect on this goal: | |||||
| To what extent did you succeed in your goal (X) for stakeholder (Y)? | ||||||
| Six-point Likert Scale | –1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Further away from the goal | Nothing has changed | A small part of the goal has been achieved | Much of the goal has been achieved | The goal has been achieved | More has been achieved than the set goal | |
Table 3
SCTs Team boundary work types.
| AGGREGATED THEME | DESCRIPTION AND FOCUS | 2nd ORDER CODES | EXAMPLE QUOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. Building and reinforcing boundary [9] | Inward focus: the team’s activities to clarify issues and actions and build a foundation to reach out to the targeted stakeholders. | Discuss and improve actions. | “We scheduled a repeating meeting about this project where we simultaneously fill out the questionnaire. In this meeting we share our visions and experiences as well.” (QUEST21-11 SPO-1) “We’ve assessed the housing project and found it to be running smoothly with clear internal processes. However, we’re now exploring possibilities for further pioneering. Despite the successes, it’s evident there are ongoing housing challenges for vocational students, though these fall outside the project’s scope.” (QUEST21-23 SCH-2) “In our team’s collaboration, we have set new goals that resonate with all of us. You can feel that we are all on the same page and know exactly what we are doing together.” (QUEST21-29 STR-6) |
| Learn from actions, reflect in the team. | “I consider us as a real team. We discuss progress, and learn not only from cases, but also how this project relates to other important areas for our organisation.” (QUEST21-23 SPO-3) “During our actions’ evaluation, we all came up with points on how to approach this topic even more effectively. For example, conducting phone calls with housing corporations and holding case discussions about students’ housing issues within the team.” (QUEST21-11 SCH-1) | ||
| B. Boundary buffering [9] | Outward focus: the team’s activities to protect the boundary against disturbances from outside the team. | Discuss threats to achieve goals. | “To which extent the management supports this project, I don’t know. I get the impression that there are many, and many different projects with divergent themes (…) I miss consistency. I would like to set up a tailoring session for our projects.” (21-17 SPO-3) “Currently, issues like illness, growing waiting lists, and heavier caseloads impacting some team members’ levels of engagement. I’ve addressed these concerns, prompting action from the management team. We’re now receiving temporary support from youth colleagues, allowing us to refocus on working and thinking differently and take more time to reflect.” (QUEST21-6 STR-2) |
| C. Boundary spanning [9; 15]: inside out | Outward focus, the team’s actions aiming to inform others and convey ideas, and services (sending). | Inform and inspire others. | “At school, last week, I discussed with the mentors about housing and how to apply [this flowchart] to the students for our programme. Often, I notice that people don’t know much about this topic, so very important, perhaps it is an idea to visit the teacher teams to inform them about our flowchart.” (QUEST21-7 SCH-1) “Our approach in the street is well presented to the management team. Our manager knows well and propagates the importance of this approach to other colleagues.” (QUEST21-3 STR-3) |
| D. Boundary spanning [9; 15]: outside in | Outward focus: the team’s actions to obtain new insights, information or means, enabling the team to negotiate and collaborate with the targeted stakeholder (receiving). | Obtain information and support. | “I spoke with the manager about the project. Later, she called me back and pointed out the possibility to apply for a subsidy for projects addressing ‘the impact of COVID-19 on youth’. We have added it to our team’s action list.” (QUEST21-19 SPO-1) “Within our team, we built on the ground-breaking professional and the housing topic as well. I am designing the ‘flowchart housing’ together with a colleague. We need input from other colleagues, and we talked about this extensively. I talked to colleagues about enrolling for the housing project and the expected changes as well.” (QUEST21-7 SCH-1) “I only heard about the area restriction [from inhabitant] from the police, but not officially. The municipality issued this restriction, not the police. I’ve reached out and expressed our desire to be involved […].” (STR-NOTE21-1202) |
| E. Boundary play [29] | Outward focus: the team’s actions to blur the boundaries, experiment with others, and learn by doing iteratively. | Try something new. | “In our conversations, the club mentioned their concerns about the youngsters but felt no possibilities to do more about it. Then I thought: ‘This is where we can join in’ All we must do now is to communicate clearly, and especially experiment together.” (21-11 SPO-3) “Past two weeks, we have been working on clarifying our goals for making them actionable. Additionally, we supported the early detection [of housing problems] in the teachers’ teams, that is important. This involves breaking routines and trying something new […].” (SCH-TM20210330) |
| Learn together. | “We scheduled a monthly meeting with the club. There, we discuss running cases in which we and the board consider things from our different perspectives.” (QUEST21-11 SPO-3) “The cards are designed [with three questions to discover housing issues]. Now just printing remains. I noticed that asking about housing is now integrated in the intake process […].” (QUEST22-7 SCH-1) |
Table 4
SCTs’ Service integration.
| AGGREGATED THEME | DESCRIPTION | 2nd ORDER CODES | EXAMPLE QUOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service integration | The SCT’s description of the achieved service integration with one or more stakeholders. | An observed need for | “Due to neighbourhood disturbances, an inhabitant moved to another area last year for safety reasons, with the approval of involved authorities. Now, a different authority wants to move the person back to the street, prioritising the person’s wishes over neighbourhood safety. We need to organise a meeting to discuss the impact on the whole street and learn how to operate in an integrated way.” (NOTE20210303STR) |
| As a failed or not yet realised outcome | “I referred in an intake conversation with a student with problems (including housing) to social work. Therefore, the student had to wait longer despite the urgency. This makes me dependant on the other SCT and reduces my ability to support the non-self-reliant student. I’m concerned about these situations” (QUEST21-8 SCH-3) | ||
| As a realised outcome | “It is about identifying, together with the trainers, youth in difficult circumstances and, using all the signals from referees and trainers. Then we can apply for assistance for acquiring some sportwear, with the support of another SCT as well, and the kid can continue to play.” (NOTE 210507SPO) |
Figure 2
Patterns in the SCTs’ bottom-up, incremental service integration approach.
a = Reflecting on and updating the action-goals.