Between mandate and opportunity : A qualitative study on social workers' experiences of collaboration with schools in their work with young people at risk

The goal of this research is to examine social worker's perspectives regarding collaboration with schools in assisting youth who may be at risk of criminal behavior. The research examines factors both enabling and disabling collaboration as well as the impact collaboration has on effective prevention work. The primary data of this study focuses on social workers’ lived experiences of collaboration and the organizational or individual factors that shape the result. This study is guided by three research questions: what do social workers deem as important for effective collaboration with the school? What are the gaps that they do not see being addressed in the collaboration? In what way does the collaboration attempt modify the prevention work conducted with the youths at risk? The data was collected from six qualitative interviews with social workers which was analyzed using a thematic approach. The analytical framework included Street-Level Bureaucracy (Lipsky) and interorganizational collaboration (Danermark et al). The analysis shows that collaboration, in most cases, is a paradox of vague frameworks, informal networks, under-resourcing, and on the other hand, effective collaboration built on trust and communication and shared responsibility.