Methodology
Having conversations
The conversations we invite (through whatever method) are not seeking to consult on what the council can do differently. Rather, we seek to convene a conversation that places people at the centre of possible change. We are looking to capture not only challenges but also what already exists in terms of potential resident contribution.
We recognise that there are a number of drawbacks to conventional community engagement and consultation tools.
If we survey people from NCC it risks placing expectations that we will solve the issues reported, it is also more likely a one way communication – our return rate (engagement) may be low and are likely to reach those who are engaged enough to return a survey.
Likewise focus groups / community meetings can involve the same voices being heard, and have to date been used by NCC to varying degrees of success (neighbourhood panels, SNAP meetings etc) to focus on resolving resident issues.
We are therefore working to test alternative ways to gain insights whereby we collaborate to learn from those who are trusted and work in the local community.
In this way we can play an active role in collating and sharing insights with anyone for improving life in that neighbourhood is of interest to.
Community connectors and conversation officers
Since November 2021 Community Connectors, hosted by The Shoebox Enterprises CIC, have been having conversations in their neighbourhoods with residents to discover what matters to them, what they are passionate about and what they would like to do with others to help them flourish in community life.
Community Connectors have been recruited from their local neighbourhoods and are managed and supported by The Shoebox Enterprises but work for the benefit of their local community.
Norwich City Council works in partnership with The Shoebox Enterprises to support the continued development of the Community Connector team and the wider Community Conversations project.
The role of Community Connectors is to get to know people in their local community – spot other 'connectors' in the community, attend events and organise their own to meet people and find out what they’d like to do more of with others. Where appropriate they signpost and connect people and place.
Conversations are responsive to people’s interests and not scripted. However you can see the Connectors and the type of things they invite into conversation here.
They also get to hear about what’s working and not working for people in their neighbourhood. Connectors share reflections from their conversations with Norwich City Council's Community Enabling team who are able to:
- help spot opportunities where they can support residents to do more
- identify insights leading to further focused conversations (to encourage collaboration at all levels in a community on an issue) or projects
Within the Community Enabling team we have 3 Conversations Officers who are working hand in hand with the Community Connectors, and other professionals working in neighbourhoods to understand the potential and challenges.
Their role is to develop focused conversations in the community based on what’s coming from insights, and support community level collaboration, and collaboration between external organisations (where there is a role for them).
Data analysis
We have built this site as a way of sharing insights into the conversations data we are capturing. We are going to grow it over time so that it will ultimately do the following:
provide insights into the community in specific RITAs and spot opportunities
help review processes involved in collecting and analysing data to continually improve
track progress towards impact from this way of working
We are analysing the conversation data in a way which is led by what comes up. Themes and subcategories have been identified from the data and if this changes over time, we will add new ones. Some areas mention nothing within some of these themes and in this case, you will not see those themes within the thematic analysis sections.
We are embedded an asset-based approach into our analysis so rather than highlight what is good and what is bad, we're identifying where people talk in asset-based terms (for example, things or interests which are there) and deficit-based terms (where things are lacking). This provides a greater flexibility for us to be true to the method of capturing the data and allows us to highlight where people used a combination of language. Importantly it provides a strong basis that we can use when identifying opportunities so that we can use what's strong to fix what's wrong.
This is a developing project and this hub also provides insights into limitations of the data and how we can make changes moving forward. Consequently each theme contains a section on data limitations and recommendations which we will seek to implement as the project moves along.
The value of this data is that it comes from insights from people who are trusted in the community who are not surveying people. Unlike survey data which skews towards what the surveyor deems important, this approach seeks to understand what is coming out on top for people living in these neighbourhoods. The limitation in the data is its breadth can mean one particular topic is not explorer in depth. However the data provides evidence of the potential value of exploring topics that are arising to ask further questions of people.