Beyond the Radar 8 July 2011

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Beyond the radar: maximising the impact of community activities

Angus McCabe & Andri Soteri-ProctorTSRC, University of [email protected]@bham.ac.uk 8 July 2011

Why are we here?

• Continuing and increasing expectations on community groups and activities to

• Take part in social action – more than ‘community engagement’?

• Play a key role in public service reform• Contribute to renewing democracy• How do we respond? What can we do?

The Issue

• Size of the below the radar ‘sector’• The invisible architecture of the third sector/civil

society• Toepler (2003) concludes that • ‘perhaps one of the few remaining big mysteries in

non-profit sector research is the question of what we are missing by excluding those organisations from empirical investigations that are not easily captured in standard data sources’

Overview: A starting point?

• Over 300 groups in each area – but duplications, missing (contact) information, duplication and variation between lists, updating issue

• Quality of local listings? • Alternative pilot? TSRC’s ‘Street-walking’

mapping project to find unregistered third sector social activities, groups and organisations

• Minimal definition: people coming together in shared space ‘regularly’

Street-Walking mapping project: in search of unregistered third sector groups and activities

• Backdrop: OTS pilot survey on unregistered organisations

• Search tools

• Early findings: the count so far …

• Tentative reflections from the findings: • Host-organisations – ‘unaccounted resources’ • What we know about the geography of community engagement and

whether this would look different if the ‘uncounted’ get counted?

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Street-walking mapping project (SWMP):

• Task - to find ‘unregistered’ groups• The aims:

• engage critically with theoretical debates on definition and approaches used to understand the third sector; and examine the implications on what is missing from these analyses

• generate ‘sub-population’ for more detailed work

• test-bed for future mappers

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The pilot: SWMP

Tight geographic boundaries in 2 localities

Locations A: West Midlands 6 neighbouring streets With a highly densely populated ward, BME population (over 80%) with new and established ethnic communities

Location B: North WestBoundary drawn by connecting points of ‘shared space’Authority that is traditionally white English (90%) with pockets of deprivation. Selected area, less affluent and consists of an established Pakistani community, with more recent trends of transient migrant populations

Hindu templeSikh temple

20 groups/activities

SchoolPark

Seasonal groups

Community centres with up to 50 unregistered

groups

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60 and still counting ...… diverse and raising questions?

• Quirky: ‘dowser group’• Serious ‘leisure’ and ‘hobby’ groups – photography,

arts and museum …• Communities supporting each other (for a very long

time):– eg. ‘death committee’; overseas village fund– multi-national ‘user-turn-volunteer’ service for refugees

and asylum seekers – International women’s group – ESOL, heath awareness+

• Regional unregistered community farm

So what does this mean for community engagement?

• a modest number of 60• in less than two-square miles• …. & still (un)counting!

• out there and have been for a long time: communities coming together, supporting each other

• delivering services to (their) public; but this is not the same as public service delivery

tentative comments…• unregistered groups are not islands; drawing on others’

resources • host-organisations play a role in fostering the work of

many community activities: • beyond space = knowledge, support and expertise • walking a tight-rope: how far can they support

these groups and find ways to sustain their buildings

• risk of pushing out unregistered groups (own projects vs community activities?)

• sensitivity on learning a culture of shared space

How much do we really know about community engagement in deprived areas?

• ‘Social gradient’ - charity and voluntary deserts?

• What would happen if we include the ‘informal’ third sector?

• Would the trend remain the same or change?

• Either way, there is more participation in deprived areas than is understood

The Challenge

• Engaging below the radar groups in the current policy agendas?

• Who wants to engage, who needs to engage and why?

• Making the ‘invisible architecture’ visible?• Beyond the radar – ideas into action.

The Task

• Question: has power (ever) really been transferred to communities?

• If the agenda is the transfer of power• What needs to happen?• What can we do?• Who else needs to be involved?• Building influence for change?