Citizenhood
Citizenhood is a word coined through the work of JFA Purple Orange. It is the anchor-point for the framework known as the Model of Citizenhood Support, currently in its second edition (2013).
Citizenhood is a collective term for the roles we undertake in our daily lives, that bring meaning and fulfillment and which give us valued membership of our communities. This includes roles within families (Mum, Son, Auntie, Cousin, Grandpa, etc), roles with significant others (wife, husband, partner, friend, acquaintance) roles within neighbourhoods (householder, neighbour, etc), roles within communities (club member, theatre-goer, transport-user, volunteer, team mate, etc), and roles within economies (customer, business-owner, wage-earner, plumber, teacher, etc).
In this model, Citizenhood is seen to be different to Citizenship, which is deemed to involve the rights and responsibilities of being a citizen of a country. Typically, the roles of Citizenship are static, unchanging; it is hard to lose Citizenship. However, the roles of Citizenhood are dynamic, they can change.
For example, if a person becomes unwell because of a cold or flu, they will be less able to undertake the usual roles they have; they may need to take off time from work, they may have to step back if possible from some family responsibilities, they may delay the shopping trip, they may miss out on social events, club meetings, and so on. As such, their Citizenhood has taken a hit, but will typically bounce back with their recovery.
The Model suggests that some people, for example people living with disability, experience greater difficulty accessing roles of Citizenhood. this is for a range of reasons, and includes how they are supported. The Model sets out how human service agencies, as well as informal agenst such as family, friends, and the person themselves, can rethink how support happens so that the perosn has a better chance of moving into citizenhood.
In this way, the support becomes genuinely helpful.
The Four Capitals
The Model of Citizenhood goes on to set out how a human service agency, or informal agent (including the person themselves), can provide supports that are truly helpful. This is done by thinking about the person's life chances in four main ways, called the Four Capitals.
The Four Capitals are: Personal Capital, Knowledge Capital, Material Capital, and Social Capital.
You can download a copy of the Model Of Citizenhood Support, which sets out the elements of the Four Capitals, by clicking the link below. The publication also includes a sample set of outcomes measures, and also a set of questions a human services agency can pose for itself, to assist reflective enquiry.