Engagement methods
Community profiling: participatory profiling
The statistical profiling methods described above allow organisations to scrutinise existing data to establish a better understanding of the characteristics of communities and neighbourhoods, assess need, and model service performance and user perceptions/satisfaction. These approaches provide powerful analytical tools which can help the targeting of community engagement activities, information campaigns, and service delivery.
There will be times, when you need to consider other approaches. For some communities routine datasets are not adequate. For example, few data sets capture information about some black and minority ethnic groups like Somalis, highly mobile population groups, or people from the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual community. Sometimes the geography of real communities does not match the boundaries within Census or other data sets. You may also want to obtain insights on issues not covered by routine data sets, such as community cohesion, social capital, or other variables of relevance to community relations with the police.
All of the research and engagement approaches described in this guide help to profile and understand communities. In this section, we wish to highlight two participatory approaches, which enable communities to take an active part in the profiling of their characteristics, needs and resources.
Environmental audits in CheshireOverview These audits are designed to support activity around community safety and cohesion. The Audit process involves a team of 4-8 people, including a local Police Officer, local Councillor and local residents. Members of the team receive training to enable them to recognise signs of disorder and so-called ‘background noise'. The area being audited usually consists of about 3-5,000 households. The audit process has three parts:
The audit process feeds into an action plan, which typically brings together a range of partners. The local officer(s) can use the audit to acquaint him/herself with the local area. The audit may also be used to reassure local residents in cases where, for example, fear of crime is high but incidents comparatively lower. By sharing the goals of the action plan and monitoring its progress, officers can keep local people informed about what is being done to address local issues. The audit process is repeated at six monthly intervals and the action plan is reviewed every 6 weeks. Key learning point The first public perception survey in Weaverham used a range of methods to access local views, such as web based surveys and placing kiosks in supermarkets and pubs. Results indicated that ‘youth nuisance' was a major issue for respondents. However, none of the respondents were aged under 25. A focus group was therefore organised at the local high school to get the perspective of young people. Their concerns could then be included in the audit process. Key aim By linking the audit to on-going work on improving community engagement and local problem solving, the Cheshire Force and Police Authority hope to see measurable increases in community satisfaction and safety. |
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