Belonging-Centred Practice
A lens for designing environments where young people feel seen, respected, connected and able to contribute without hiding who they are.
Belonging research and youth practice field
This page is a plain-English practice summary. It attributes the source field and avoids presenting the framework as Positively Devious intellectual property.
What this framework helps with
- improving retention and participation
- designing welcoming youth spaces
- connecting inclusion with everyday relationships
Three questions it helps teams ask
- Who feels they can show up fully here?
- What rituals or norms create connection?
- How are harms named and repaired?
How to use it in youth and community work
Use Belonging-Centred Practice as a lens for better decisions, not as a script. Start with the local context, invite the people affected by the work into the interpretation, and turn the framework into practical questions, design choices and learning habits.
For Positively Devious, this framework matters because it helps explain one part of the wider conditions around positive deviance: the relationships, opportunities, skills, systems and power arrangements that make uncommon positive outcomes more likely to be noticed and learned from.
What to watch out for
- belonging cannot be forced through slogans
- safety and identity matter as much as attendance
- conflict and repair are part of belonging work