How is participation related to well-being of homeless people? An explorative qualitative study in a Dutch homeless shelter facility

Figures & data

Table 1. Examples of educational, recreational and labor activities that are organized under the label “I want to participate”.

Education	Recreation	Labor
Computer course	Mosaic work	Gardening
Resistance training	Ceramics (creative)^b	Ceramic products manufacturing^b
Bee-keeper course	Woodworking (creative)^b	Woodwork manufacturing^b
Group meetings with several recovery-based themes^a	Sports (e.g. boxing, swimming, and Sports Surprise)	Housekeeping (e.g. cleaning, linen room)
	Karaoke	Taxi driving
	Theatre	Professional cooking

^aExamples are: how to find a house, how to cope with addiction, how to improve social skills, and how to make a budget.

^bThese activities are separated: for example creative ceramics have a slower pace, another aim and mostly other participants than ceramic products manufacturing. The manufacturing activities prepare participants to work in industry or in a factory.

Table 2. Demographic characteristics of participants (Study 1).

Participant	Gender	Age (years)	Duration of support (years)	Participation level “I want to participate” (days per week)
1	Female	63	.5	2.5
2	Male	62	3	0^a
3	Male	77	3	2.5
4	Male	58	5	0^b
5	Male	64	4	4.5
6	Male	35	2.5	1.5
7	Male	60	2	2.5
8	Female	34	1	3.5
9	Male	37	1.5	1.5
10	Male	28	.5	0^b

^apreviously participated 2.5 days per week.

^bpreviously participated 4 days per week.

Table 3. Interview description (Study 1).

	Topic	Example questions	Reason(s) for including this topic/these questions
1	Demographics	- What is your age? - Do you consider yourself as male or woman? - How long have you been staying at this shelter facility?	Demographic variables might influence the client’s experiences of participation in activities in relation to well-being. E.g. an older client can have physical difficulties whereby he experiences a lower physical well-being independent from his level of participation in activities. Clients who are staying longer at this facility can have other perceptions of participation
2	Level of participation in activities	- How many days/times per week are you joining the activities? - Which activities are you joining?	The participation level might influences the client’s experiences. E.g. clients who participate more in activities have more and probably other experiences than clients who participate less. We examined the type of activities (education, recreation, and labor) in order to ask the proper question at topic 3 (if a client does not participate in recreational questions, we did not need to ask a question about recreational activities)
3	Physical, social, and mental well-being	- What is the influence of your participation in educational/recreational/labor activities on your physical/social/psychological functioning? (9 possible questions: type of activity vs. type of functioning)	This is the main part of the interview (i.e. exploration of research question)
4	Satisfaction with the supervisor, activity itself, and peer group	What do you think of …  - the supervisor? - the activities (per type of activity)? - the group of participants? Further exploration (if not mentioned): And how does that influence your participation and/or functioning … ?	When a homeless person is not satisfied with the activity, the supervisor or the group, the likelihood of discontinuing the activity will be higher and/or the benefits of participation might be lower or absent or they might even be contra-productive

Table 4. Meta-matrix per participant (example of Participant 1, 63 year-old-woman) (Study 1).

	Educational activities	Recreational activities	Labor activities
Activities client is joining	Computer course	Creative activities under which mosaic work and ceramics	Housekeeping
Physical well-being	Typing is becoming faster and faster. My fingers have become more supple	I notice that my arm muscles became stronger, because I move these more	It’s a bit hard to say, but I walk more, so physically it makes you better. I have improved my condition. My arms and legs have become stronger, because I’m using my arm and leg muscles more. I have gained more endurance
Social well-being	I don’t use Facebook and during the computer course I hardly get the chance to chat with other people. You have to be busy with the computer course	I can talk to people who are also joining creative activities. This became easier. Now I know how I can improve my communication. The other residential clients did not became real friends. I don’t think I can interact with people in that way. I prefer supporting people. Hence, I became more helpful. I wouldn’t call myself a coach (…) People asked me for help more often (…)	The same applies as with recreation. I have learned to interact with more people. Now I know better how to communicate
Psychological (mental) well-being	I have learned how to work with a computer	I’m proud of myself. I can do something. I have accomplished something. I believe that I have become more independent. I also gained more insight into getting a job done	The same applies as with recreation activities. I gained more insight into getting a job done

Table 5. Part of meta-matrix with aim to compare answers (Study 1).

Topic	Question	Participant 1	Participant 2	Etc. (participant 3–10)
2	How many times a day/per week are you joining the activities?	5 day times per week, i.e. 2.5 days	Only in the beginning I joined the activities for 5 day times per week. Currently, I am not joining the activities because of my physical condition	…
3	What is the influence of your participation in educational activities on your physical well-being	Typing is becoming faster and faster. My fingers have become more supple	N/A^a	…
Etc. (1–4)	…	…	…	…

^aonly participated in recreational and labor activities in the past.

Table 6. Demographic characteristics of participants (Study 2).

Participant	Gender	Age (years)	Duration of support (years)
11	Female	60	4
12	Female	42	5
13	Male	37	6
14	Male	46	2.5
15	Female	52	6.5
16	Male	45	5.5

Table 7. Interview description (Study 2).

	Topic	Example questions	Reason(s) for including this topic/these questions
1	Sports Surprise	- How did you experience Sports Surprise the last 10 weeks? - What did you like/dislike? - Why … ?	General evaluation of experiences of Sports Surprise. In order to interpret the answers on the main topics adequately, it is important to know whether clients had positive or negative experiences and feelings and how this is caused
2	Social support	- Did you get help or assistance from co-participants (of Sports Surprise) with buying food or clothes or other material things? How was this related to participation in Sports Surprise? Why … ? - Did anything in your life related to your living situation, daily activities, financial situation, social life change due to participation in Sports Surprise? Why … ? - Did co-participants advice you about work or health? Why … ? - Did you get to know more people due to your participation? Why … ? What does it mean to you? - Did the way you are in touch with people change due to your participation? Why … ? What does it mean to you? - How did/do you interact with co-participants? Did it change? Why … ? What does it mean to you?	First main part of the interview: exploration of research question regarding tangible, advice, belonging, and self-esteem support
3	Sense of coherence	- Did the way you are coping with stories or information changed, since you joined Sports Surprise? Why … ? - Did you gain more autonomy the last period? (How) is that related Sports Surprise? How … ? - Did you notice changes on the way you make decisions? For example, if someone offers you assistance, do you make a decision faster? (How) is that related to Sports Surprise? - How do you cope with stories/information people tell you? - Do you consider the things you do more interesting and worthwhile? Why? (How) is that related to Sports Surprise?	Second main part of the interview: exploration of research question regarding sense of coherence (i.e. comprehensibility, manageability, and meaningfulness)