The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Why Bother? If you’ve got a copy of this guide you must want to engage with your community and want to learn how to understand them better. So the big question is why bother to do a community audit? 
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Helps your church to develop a vision or to add focus to its aims Helps to identify the needs of the community and can lead you towards ways of addressing those needs Helps Empower the Community – by playing a part in the project Helps you understand the community and it’s issues better Helps start the conversation with the community Helps you to engage with other groups and potentially develop partnerships Gives you the evidence to go to funders to ask for grants All of these things on their own would make the audit a worthwhile thing to do, but together they make the audit an essential tool for shaping the mission of your church and for the long term planning of the use of your church building. Let’s start at the Very Beginning The most important thing in any church project is that the church has ownership of the project. If it’s not the right thing for the church and doesn’t fit in with the history and tradition of the church then it is likely to fail. This means that the majority of the congregation and church leaders need to agree with the aim of a project. Always remember you are an essential part of the community so it’s really important to have your say too. As with any project the most important stage is the first – planning. This stage makes more difference to the success or failure of a project than any other. Before ever talking to an architect or contractor it is most important to understand what you and your community need. This is the big question that a community audit asks. Finally, it’s really important not to decide the answers before you start. The community audit has to be a genuine listening exercise or it won’t work. If you want to serve the community you have to listen to their needs or they will not use the services or space you provide at the end of the process. Also, funders do monitor the schemes they fund so the project does need to genuinely address the needs identified through the audit. 1 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community What is need? No community is perfect, so all communities have needs. In towns and cities the needs might be unemployment, anti‐social behaviour and crime. In rural areas there might be a lack of facilities or services. In all communities there are people living in isolation. The aim of the community audit is to try to understand these needs and try to find ways that a church can address them. What are Outcomes? And Why do they matter? This is how the BIG lottery fund describes outcomes: “Outcomes are the changes or difference that your project can make over time. An easy way to think of them is that they are the result of what you do, rather than the activities or services you provide. “For people, this might be things like improved health, new skills, more confidence or self‐
esteem, or getting a job. Some projects focus more on communities, the environment, or organisations. The outcomes might relate directly to them (such as tidier communities or more biodiversity) or changes in people that help benefit them (such as more awareness of environmental issues, reduced fear of crime, or more community participation).” A lot of community funders, like the BIG lottery and landfill community trusts, fund projects on the basis of the outcomes they will provide. How do we start? Project/Community Audit Group – this should be made up of no more than 10 people. It can come from only the congregation, but you might also include members of the community, especially if you’re not sure that you have the capacity to do the audit by yourself. It’s a really good idea to have a mix of ages and experience. The skills you need within the group are good presentation and communication skills; creativity; the ability to network with different groups; administrative and organisational skills and the ability to analyse the information once it has been collected. Terms of Reference – this is a formal way of writing down the purpose of the group and the community audit and writing down timescales to help people within the group and those outside to understand why it is happening and when they can expect to hear the results. The terms of reference should include: 
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The purpose and scope of the community audit Who the Community Audit group are made up of 2 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community 
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The likely timescales for the audit How and When the group will report back As the project progresses it’s really important you keep everybody informed. This makes sure that people feel involved and keep ownership of the project. It is a good idea to decide how this will happen at the start of the process and can be in the form of events, displays in the church, services or newsletters or updates. Who to Ask? What do we mean by community? The first question to ask is who and what we mean by the community. Community audits usually define a geographical area. In some senses the parish is often a good geographical area to choose. The church is often at the centre of the parish and has a duty to care for the people within its bounds. You might also want to think about the nature of the community and who you think might connect with your church. For example, in some of the most deprived parts of the city the community you choose might be people within easy walking distance of the church (maybe a mile). In rural areas people are likely to travel further for services that they need. Whatever community you choose make sure that you have thought about it and that if you cross boundaries that people understand what you are trying to achieve and don’t feel as if you are stepping on their toes. To help you think about the community you’re trying to reach and the different groups you might want to talk to you might want to make a map with your church at the centre and different groups and organisations; such as schools, doctor’s surgeries, parks, community centres; marked on. This can also be a really helpful visual aid later on. Different sources of information It’s important that information in the audit comes from a range of different sources so that you have a balanced and accurate picture; so that you will understand the services that other people are already providing and so that you fit in with other people’s priorities. The scope of the audit will match the amount of time you have and the amount of work you’ve already done. If you already know the area that you want to work, such as youth or addiction, you can target your research at those areas. Government– national and local government collect a lot of information about all different parts of the country in lots of different sectors such as income, health and education. This helps them to make decisions about where they spend their money and time. A lot of this information is available online or through your local authority. 3 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Groups/Stakeholders – the purpose of talking to different groups is to get a picture of what is already happening in the area and to see how you can work with others to provide a new service for the community. It is really important that you don’t replicate what someone else is already doing. Not only would you set yourself up in competition but funders won’t pay for services that are already provided elsewhere locally. Churches, other places of worship, schools, doctor’s surgeries, advisory groups (e.g. Citizens Advice Bureau), voluntary and community groups, sports clubs, local history groups can all be approached. As well as finding out about the needs of the community this will also give you invaluable links and contacts. Individuals – these will be the people who will become the users of your services or facilities. One of the biggest reasons applications to community funders fail is the lack of discussion with the users of a service. It is vital to understand what individuals within the community need or it is unlikely that there will be demand for the services in the long term. How to ask? There’s already lots of information out there and there should be more in the future as the government are very keen on releasing as much data as they can so people can see how their taxes are spent. There has also been a move in recent years, which will continue into the future, of community/parish and neighbourhood planning. The provision of services and spatial planning is now being done in consultation with local people on a parish or neighbourhood basis. All of this information should make it easier to incorporate government held information into your community audit. Below are some suggestions and shortcuts to make the process easier for you. Government – There is lots of information from census data, employment statistics, health information, educational data, crime statistics and housing information collected by the central government. Nationally the government brings all of this information together in the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. This is a comparison of blocks of 1500 people (called Lower Super Output Areas) throughout England to see which are the most and least deprived parts of the country in different categories. Each block (or Lower Super Output Area) is ranked against the others with 1 being the most deprived and 32,844 being the least deprived. You can find this information for your community at: http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/ if you put the postcode of your church in the right hand box and search you will get a summary of the statistics for you area. Although do bear in mind that one Lower Super Output Area is not necessarily that large so you might need to search a number of different areas to research the whole of your community audit area. 4 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community The Church Urban Fund have created a tool that uses the Indices of Multiple Deprivation and other data on a parish rather than neighbourhood basis: http://www.cuf.org.uk/povertyinengland This can be a really good tool to understand your parish in relation to others and to be able to start to delve into the world of government statistics. In Leeds we are very lucky to have the Indices of Multiple Deprivation translated into a much more user friendly format by the Oastler Centre (formerly based at Leeds Church Institute). They took each Lower Super Output Area and renamed it to something people would understand as a neighbourhood (usually based on street names and estates). They then showed whether the different categories became more or less deprived between 2004 and 2007. This information can be incorporated straight into your audit as a basis for understanding what the government are saying about your area. The information for your area can be found at: http://www.networkleeds.com/Publisher/Article.aspx?ID=189673 Your local authority will hold lots of information about where you live, it’s issues and the needs that your church could meet. For Leeds and West Yorkshire all City Council, health and education data can be found at: http://www.westyorkshireobservatory.org/ In many rural areas parish plans have been prepared that should contain all the information that you need to be able to make an assessment of the needs of the area that have been assessed by the parish council. For North Yorkshire plans can be found at: Hambleton District ‐ http://www.hambleton.gov.uk/index.php/planningtopnav/planning‐
policy/parish‐plans Harrogate Borough – Contact John Strudwick at North Yorkshire County Council on 01609 536856 or mailto:[email protected] Richmondshire District – Contact Claire Lowery at North Yorkshire County Council on 01609 535416 or mailto:[email protected] 5 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community If you are in a Rural Area and you don’t already have a parish plan why not get in touch with your parish council to encourage one to happen. If you can play a key role in the parish plan you will be able to gain all the information you need for your community audit and make sure that you can work together with other partners to find community services or facilities that the church could provide. There is penty of support for community planning from your local authority, Rural Action Yorkshire and your local Voluntary Services Association (contacts at the end of the guide). Groups/Stakeholders – First of all you need to identify all the different groups in your area. The best starting point is what the congregation already knows about. Your local voluntary services association should be able to give you a list of other local groups. Locality have a list of development trust and community groups across the country on their website: http://locality.org.uk/members/area/ Finally, keep your eyes peeled for other groups that operate around your church. Most groups have premises so if you spot any add them to your list. As you talk to groups they will also suggest other people to talk to. The best way to get the views of different groups and stakeholders is to conduct an interview. Have a questionnaire to take along to guide the interview, however don’t worry if you stray away from the questions. The most important things to find out are: 
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What services the group are already providing for the community Whether those services are at full capacity Whether they think there are any ways that the church can help them or provide another allied service 6 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Individuals – You can reach individuals in many different ways and it's probably best to think about what you have time for and what you're most comfortable doing. One really effective way to reach individuals is to have a community fun day and invite everybody along. On the day have a number of activities, especially for kids, such as face painting or a bouncy castle. If you can get the local children to come they will bring their parents and whilst the children are playing you can get the information you need for the community audit from their parents. It's usually best to give people a range of ways that they can express their opinions, so for example you might have a questionnaire (there's examples at the back) from which you put the questions on posters around the church that people can put post it notes on, as you can see on the event below: You can also do a plan of the church so people can put which facilities they'd like to see or use in it. The community event is often something that is programmed into the church year and can be a really good way to let people know that you want to do something for the community. As a church you might just be happier sending all houses in the parish a questionnaire to fill in. The most effective audits will give people different opportunities and different ways to input. What to ask? It’s important to include hard statistical data as well as softer opinion data in your community audit report. It’s really important to think about what your aims are and the research questions you’re asking to different people. You certainly must ask questions about the needs and issues that the community faces but you might also think about broader questions like What do people feel about the Church? There are sample questionnaires and posters in appendix 1. 7 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community What does it all mean? – Analysing your data What are the Issues and Needs It's worth breaking down the information you get back into different issues and needs, such as crime, health, income, education etc. Exploring these issues gives you an understanding of the needs of people in your community. Where are we now? For the different issues think about what is already addressed by different groups and about the capacity they have (i.e. are they oversubscribed) and the capacity you have as a church. What gaps are there in provision? Through analysis of what's already out there you should find gaps in provision or people who miss out on services. For example, this might be the elderly or young families. Addressing Need What are the Options for addressing needs? From the analysis of issues, needs and existing provisions you should identify gaps or people who currently miss out on support. This might be elderly people who feel isolated within their own homes or young people who feel disconnected from education. Whatever the needs you have to think of ways as a church you can address them. You might discover that there are relatively cheap things you can do that make a difference, such as setting up a forum to help bring together within the community to tackle financial issues such as debt. This is what the West Leeds Debt Forum did (initially from Bramley Church). The project that you think of might be more complicated and costly needing expert advice and funding. Whatever you come up with you need to weigh up different options to decide on a preferred option to take forward. There are a number of tools you can use to work out the best option. The most common is SWOT analysis, which stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. The first two are internal factors, so what are the Strengths and Weaknesses of the project. The last two are external factors, so what are the opportunities that the project exploits and what are the threats that could hamper the project. The best projects will be creative (funders love innovation) and work in partnership with other groups. It is most important that you don't duplicate something that is happening elsewhere in the community as it is self‐defeating setting yourself in competition to other community groups and funders won't fund the duplication of services. 8 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Demand It is really important to establish a demand for any project or in the long term it won't be sustainable. If you have identified an issue that affects 50% of people in the audit it is more likely to have a high demand than something that only 5% identified. Useful links and where to go for support Community Research and Assessing Need Neighbourhood Statistics ‐ http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/ Oastler Centre ‐ http://www.networkleeds.com/Groups/52336/Network_Leeds/Associated_Sites/Oastler_C
entre/Oastler_Centre.aspx Church Urban Fund ‐ Poverty in Numbers Toolkit ‐ http://www.cuf.org.uk/povertyinengland Community Planning – Local Authorities and Rural Action Yorkshire North Yorkshire County Council Parish Plans ‐ http://www.northyorks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2900 Hambleton District Council Peter Cole Tel. No. (01609) 767212 email: [email protected] Amanda Kent Rural Action Yorkshire Tel. No. (0845) 313 0270 ext. 227 email: amanda.kent@ruralyorkshire. Web: http://ruralyorkshire.org.uk/project/community‐led‐planning Diocesan Resources Urban Officer ‐ Kathryn Fitzsimons ‐ 0113 248 5011 or email kathrynf@riponleeds‐
diocese.org.uk 9 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Rural Officer ‐ Andy Ryland ‐ 07771 797073 or email andy.ryland@riponleeds‐diocese.org.uk Local Voluntary Services Associations Harrogate & Area CVS ‐ Harrogate & Area Council for Voluntary Service ‐ Community House, 46‐50 East Parade, Harrogate HG1 5RR http://www.harrogatecvs.org.uk/Home Nicky Smith Northallerton & District Voluntary Service Association Tel. No. (01609) 774633 Email: [email protected] Richmondshire CVS ‐ http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/richmondshirecvs/ Ripon Council for Voluntary Service ‐ Community House, Sharow View, Allhallowgate, Ripon HG4 1LE http://www.riponcvs.co.uk/Home Voluntary Action Leeds (VAL) ‐ Stringer House, 34 Lupton Street, Hunslet, Leeds. LS10 2QW Telephone: 0113 297 7920 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.val.org.uk/ Other Resources and Support Crossing the Threshold Toolkit – 10 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community http://www.hereford.anglican.org/churchgoers/community_partnership_and_funding/abo
ut_us_and_latest_news/index.aspx Livability Community Mission Resources ‐ http://www.livability.org.uk/church/ Parish Resources Website ‐ http://www.parishresources.org.uk/ 11 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Appendix 1–Sample Questionnaires and posters Questionnaire
What do you like about living in
Burmantofts?
What do you think is the biggest
issue Burmantofts faces?
What would you change about
Burmantofts?
Are all groups or people supported
in Burmantofts, and if not who
do you think misses out?
What do you feel about St Agnes
United Church?
Do you think it’s important to
have a Christian church here?
What would you like to see
happen in St Agnes church?
How long have you lived in
Burmantofts?
 Male
 Female
 Under 25  25-30
 41-50
 50-60
Gender:
Age:
31-40
over 60
12 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community 13 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Appendix 2 –Sample structure of a community audit report 
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Executive Summary ‐ summary of findings and what you are going to do about it Aims of the Community Audit ‐ Why do you want/need to do a community audit Description of the Area ‐ how big is the area, what are the boundaries, what is the character of the area Government defined need ‐ What National and Local Government say the needs of the area are Group defined need ‐ Findings from local groups Individual needs ‐ Findings from the community day or questionnaire etc Analysis ‐ Bringing all the findings together to discuss issues/needs and current provision Gaps and Bariers ‐ who misses out and why Opportunities for the Church ‐ ways the church can address the needs identified Demand for Services ‐ evidence that the services or facilities will be used Conclusion ‐ summing up the report Next Steps/Recommendations/Actions ‐ What will the church do to follow up the findings from the report 14 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Appendix 3 – Some examples of Outcomes from the BIG lottery 15 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community Appendix 4 – Examples of community action Examples of community action can be found at: Church of England ‐ Resourcing Christian Community Action ‐ http://www.how2help.net/ ChurchCare ‐ http://www.churchcare.co.uk/churches/open‐sustainable/how‐we‐can‐help Church Urban Fund ‐ http://www.cuf.org.uk/act Network Leeds ‐ http://www.networkleeds.com/Group/Group.aspx?ID=30222 Oasis Faithworks ‐ http://www.faithworks.info/inspiration/case‐studies 16 Ripon and Leeds Diocese | The Community Audit or Learning how to serve your Community