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Carlisle Rural Audit :
Research Methodology
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At the start of the project the
partners collated their mailing lists (Data Protection complying), to give an
initial idea of how many rural contacts the partners had between them. An
informative briefing sheet was prepared and sent out via the newsletters of
the partners, to all of our major rural contacts. This had two main aims,
firstly to promote the project to the voluntary sector, and secondly to inform
people and organisations that they may be receiving surveys. We wanted people
to see this project as being a valuable piece of research, and not just an
excuse for another survey. Prior to the project, the partners were only aware
of 30 rural community groups that existed in rural Carlisle, and we were
unaware of any previous mapping of rural community groups within the District. Initially the research project
was divided into 3 key strands: 1. Support offered to rural
Carlisle from the voluntary organisations based in the city centre 2. The mapping of the rural
community groups within the Carlisle District 3. The mapping of the
facilities available to community groups within the Carlisle District 1. The aim of this part of the project was to highlight areas of support offered to rural Carlisle from voluntary organisations based within Carlisle city centre. It was felt that this would be a worthwhile exercise, as most of the voluntary organisations in the Carlisle District, are based in the city centre. This enabled us to find out any outreach projects/work conducted by the city centre organisations. A survey was emailed to all of the known voluntary organisations (see appendix), and posted to the other organisations that we did not know the email addresses for. In total we sent out 125 surveys. The survey questioned the support they offered to rural Carlisle, it included a SAE, and a project briefing sheet. The response rate via email was rather poor only about 1-2%. The postal survey was much more effective. Most probably because the smaller organisations only check their email on very infrequent occasions, whereas a postal survey makes more of an impact. This highlights the potential widespread IT needs of the voluntary organisations in the Carlisle District. This survey proved to be effective with a return rate of approx. 30%. The results showed that there is very little support in terms of outreach services, offered to rural Carlisle. Most voluntary organisations saw the need to conduct outreach work in rural areas, but a lack of resources prevented them from doing this. 2. The aim of this part of the project was to map out all of the community groups based in rural Carlisle. For this part of the project we contacted several village-based contacts, such as, Parish Clerks, Village Hall Secretaries, Community Centres, Schools, Churches, WI secretaries. These groups were our main source of information for the mapping exercise. Each contact was sent a survey, a project briefing sheet (see appendix), and a SAE. We initially piloted the survey with the Cumwhitton and Longtown Parish Clerks. This pilot was to test the survey to ensure it was easy to complete, and to check that we were collecting the right information. This was followed up with a courtesy call, asking them how they had found completing the survey. No adjustments were necessary to the survey.
3. The aim of this part of the project was to map out all of the facilities/services available to community groups in the Carlisle District. These include for example; Post Offices, Churches, Village Halls. Through Voluntary Action Cumbria’s contacts, Enterprising Communities who are based at VAC in Penrith, offered an officer to work part-time on the project. John Payne worked on this part of the project. He produced an A3 spreadsheet showing the facilities available to community groups in each settlement.
Once the research part of the project was completed, the information was collated and sorted. Each settlement in the Carlisle District was represented, using the settlements list produced by the Carlisle City Council. An Excel spreadsheet was produced for each settlement, showing the community groups that meet within that settlement. Each community group was assigned to the settlement it was based in. It was important to the project that all of the Carlisle District had been thoroughly researched, and the parishes that the report showed to have nil activity, did in fact have no community groups. This was achieved by cross-referencing the different surveys that had been returned. It was ensured that at least one survey was returned from every parish in Carlisle, this was either from the Parish Clerk, the Village Hall Secretary, or the WI Secretary. Once the mapping exercise had been completed, the information was summarised on a single spreadsheet. The community groups were divided into categories, depending what they did. These categories were taken from the CVS membership form. This summary spreadsheet gave the total number of community groups in each settlement, and the category of each group. Rural Community Group Categories
We put each of the community groups into a category depending upon what they did. These are the same categories as those used on the CVS membership form:
Because some community groups fall into several categories, below is a list of these groups, and the categories that we put them into for this project. Physical Disabilities – Stroke Group, Guide Dogs the Blind Sports/Leisure – Short Mat Bowls, Badminton, Yoga, Pilates, Gardening, Flower Associations Training – Computer Classes, Diet Groups, Cake Icing Older Adults – Day Care Centres, Over 60s Group, Luncheon Under 8s – Rainbows, Parent & Toddlers, Baby Clinic Carers – Mother’s Union Youth – Cubs, Guides, Young Farmers, Children’s Drama Arts – Drama Groups, Craft Groups, Arts Groups, Choir, Writers Group Faith – Church Groups, Sunday School, Church Choir Other - Women’s Institute, Dog Training, Young Wives, Leek Groups, Card Groups, Meditation, History Groups, Bingo, Friends (Hospital Visits) We then assigned each settlement in the Carlisle District an activity level of either; nil, low, mid, or high. This depended upon the number of community groups reported in that settlement.
Activity Levels
0 community groups– nil activity 1-4 community groups – low activity 5-14 community groups – mid activity 15+ community groups - high activity
In the course of the project we
categorised the Carlisle rural wards, into 1 of 4 ward profiles: §
Commuter/Urban Fringe §
Tourism §
Upland Farming §
Lowland Farming This was to in order to assess
the settlement activity levels against the rural ward information. These Ward
Profiles were assigned by Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency in their
‘Distinctly Cumbrian` research report (2003). The process to select which
“type” a particular ward was classed, was based on a mix of quantitative
and qualitative data. However, it was not intended to be set as a rigid
framework (as many wards have characteristics of more than one of the types)
but to provide a broad brush guide for The wards in the Carlisle
District came under 2 categories; lowland farming, and upland farming. Lowland Farming:
Upland Farming:
(Based on pre 1998 Ward Boundaries). Due to the interest generated by the project, the North Cumbria Public Health Network requested to be part of the project. They volunteered one of their Geographical Information Systems (GIS) workers, Jennifer Clay, to produce some GIS maps of the project findings. These maps greatly aided the project by enabling us to view our research findings visually. We plotted a GIS map showing the different rural ward categories, and then layered on top the settlements and their activity levels. This enabled us to see on a macroscopic scale exactly what was going on in terms of community groups in the Carlisle District. It also enabled us to choose which settlements to study in more detail. We chose a low, mid, and high, from each of the 2 categories of lowland and upland farming. This gave us 6 settlements in total to study in more detail.
Capacity of Rural Community Groups
The project aimed to look at the capacity of rural community groups in the Carlisle District, (i.e. are groups achieving what they want to achieve?). This was with a view to produce a work plan, so that the partners could better serve the district, and enhance existing support mechanisms. After the mapping exercise was complete we assigned each settlement with an activity level of either; nil, low, mid or high, depending on the number of groups based in that settlement. We then took a sample of 6 settlements (2 from each activity level) to measure the capacity of the groups within these settlements. Low activity: Ž Cotehill, Walton Mid activity: Ž Gaitsgill, Roadhead High activity: Ž Burgh-by-Sands, Houghton The capacity was measured using a postal survey. (See appendix F). The survey was distributed to all of the groups within each of the chosen settlements, via local village contacts, such as the Village Hall Secretary, or Church Minister. 66 surveys were distributed, 20 were returned, giving a return rate of 30%. Although this return rate is above average, we felt that we were unable to draw any major conclusions from only 20 surveys. Therefore we decided to send out another 50 surveys to the following settlements: Low activity: Ž Scaleby, Talkin Mid activity: Ž Hethersgill, Great Orton High activity: Ž Scotby, Wetheral 50 surveys were distributed, 22 were returned, giving a return rate of 44%. These additional surveys gave us 42 completed surveys to
analyse, and an overall return rate of 42/116 = 36%.
We plotted some more GIS maps (see appendix C), with a separate map for each category of community group, i.e. health groups, under 8s groups etc. We also plotted the facilities, and services available to community groups.
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