Research Email Briefing 35 (26 July 2005)

NICVA Research Update 35

Index

Recent Research

Young people’s attitudes and experiences of policing, violence and community safety in North Belfast, a report published by the Northern Ireland Policing Board.

Current Research

Where have all the young women gone? The Gender Equality Unit of Youth Action NI is currently undertaking a large piece of action research concerning the everyday lives of young women (aged 16-25 years) living in Northern Ireland.

What are the advantages of effective knowledge management within the voluntary sector. Research being completed by Susan Russam from GEM Belfast exploring Knowledge Management in the Voluntary Sector.

Seminars

Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure 2005: Delivering the New Deprivation Measures. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency is inviting you to attend a Public Information Seminar on the New Deprivation Measures.

Is it worth more than small change? Assessing patterns of charitable giving in Northern Ireland.

Viewfinder 4

NICVA’s fourth Viewfinder provides an insight into the views of the sector on a range of issues, including smoking, the current political situation, the policy debate, the review of charities administration and fundraising.

Recent Research

Young people’s attitudes and experiences of policing, violence and community safety in North Belfast

Johnny Byrne, Mary Conway and Malcolm Ostermeyer from the Institute of Conflict Research have completed the above piece of research which was published by the Northern Ireland Policing Board in June 2005. This research focuses on young people’s attitudes and experiences of violence and community safety in North Belfast. The research adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches: the analysis is based on findings of a questionnaire completed by 2,486 young people and interviews and focus groups with young people, police officers and community representatives in the North Belfast area.

Main issues

• The attitudes and experiences of young people attending post primary schools in the North Belfast area towards incidents of violence and disorder.
• The key issues of concern to young people in relation to issues of personal safety and security.
• The views and opinions of the police responses to violence and disorder in North Belfast.

Keys Findings

• The vast majority of young people in North Belfast have experienced high levels of violence and disorder. This includes violence related to going to school, interface and paramilitary violence and violence related to parades. However, significant numbers also report experiences of domestic violence and sexual violence.
• Young people who live in North Belfast have had a greater experience of a wide range of forms of violence than those who go to school in the area but live outside North Belfast.
• Many young people reported poor experiences with the police, over 40% of young people living in North Belfast stated they had been stopped and questioned for no reason or had experienced verbal harassment by the police.
• The majority of young people held negative views of the police. Perceptions of the police by young people compared unfavourably with the other emergency services.
• The young people had strong views of how policing could be improved and the issues that should be prioritised. These do not coincide with the findings of the wider 2004 DPP survey of residents of North Belfast.

For further information on this research visit the Northern Ireland Policing Board: http://www.nipolicingboard.org.uk or information@nipolicingboard.org.uk or 028 9040 8500.

Current Research

Where have all the young women gone?

The Gender Equality Unit of Youth Action NI is currently undertaking a large piece of action research concerning the everyday lives of young women (aged 16-25 years) living in Northern Ireland. In recognition of the fact that our knowledge surrounding many aspects of young women’s lives is lacking, or at best patchy, this project supported by the Big Lottery aims to offer a snapshot of their lives and enable young women to define their own needs. From this, Youth Action will set up a number of pilot programmes specific to identified needs and design models of effective practice for working with and for young women.

To date focus group discussions have been carried out and some of the main issues to emerge from the research so far include:

• the positive role that friendship plays in young women’s lives
• a recognised lack of information and support on the transition from childhood to adolescence
• lack of recognition and services regarding young women’s emotional wellbeing
• continued gender inequalities in the domestic setting
• lack of accessible information and services in rural areas
• inadequate and gendered careers advice
• gendered employment experiences and aspirations
• young women’s disempowerment at a school and community level (voices not heard).

For further information or to take part in the research please contact Siobhán McAlister on: 028 9076 0067 or geu@youthaction.org

What are the advantages of effective knowledge management within the voluntary sector?

Susan Russam, the Director of Belfast GEMS, a new and growing voluntary organisation which aims to promote social inclusion in employment by “making the business case for unemployed people” is currently carrying out research on knowledge management in the voluntary sector. Susan has chosen to explore if effective knowledge management improves business performance in voluntary sector organisations.

Information on research

Over the last decade increasing demands have been placed on the voluntary sector which has led to many such organisations adopting more proactive and indeed aggressive approaches to measurement, reporting, the improvement of programme outcomes and other elements of organisational performance.

Community, voluntary and faith sector organisations with value bases intrinsically linked to improving the lot of disadvantaged individuals, groups and communities have increasingly looked to industry and the public sector in an attempt to manage their business processes beyond the traditional people outcomes. Where once it was enough for not for profit organisations to demonstrate that the focus was on the needs of the customer (or the beneficiaries of the service) there is now an explicit requirement for organisations, particularly those in receipt of public funds, to demonstrate that the service they provide is delivered to its stated beneficiaries, meets stated quality determinants and is delivered at an acceptable cost.

In other words human service organisations need to be able to demonstrate value. Value can be measured in terms of three major attributes: Quality; Effectiveness; Efficiency.

Partly because of shrinking funding levels, particularly the forthcoming drying-up of the EU 'Peace well' and partly because of growth in the sector itself, voluntary organisations have been experiencing increased competition for scarce resources.

Voluntary sector organisations in order to demonstrate value to their funders and other stakeholders need to ensure that their business processes in general are aligned with the requirement to:

• focus resources on the beneficiaries who will receive the greatest benefit from the programme’s intervention
• determine the nature of client outcomes to be achieved and organise resources accordingly
• consistently deliver services in a timely, sensitive and effective manner
• manage the investment of resources with the goal of minimising cost per service and cost per outcome.

A decade or so ago, market share and competitive advantage would have been somewhat alien to most if not all voluntary sector organisations, the picture today is markedly different. Sustainability or survival of the fittest is a key business objective for the voluntary sector organisation, accordingly, business processes need to respond to the ever changing demands of an increasingly volatile market.

While positive stakeholder relationships remain the lynchpin for the voluntary sector and are a key source of competitive advantage, innovation is now widely regarded as being fundamental to an organisation’s competitiveness.

The rapid pace of change that voluntary organisations find themselves in demands viable strategies, such strategies can only be implemented if the organisation acquires and uses the appropriate knowledge and know how.

The requirement for voluntary organisations to achieve greater benefits (efficiency and effectiveness) with limited resources and repeatedly have to justify these resources under increasing competitive pressure is driving up demand for management systems that support the development of innovative new products and services.

Below is a link to a survey, originally designed by Dr Sandra Moffett, University of Ulster, which has been adjusted to reflect the voluntary sector context.

Read the article here

Susan Russam would be very grateful if you would complete the survey online and submit it. If you prefer a hard copy Susan would be happy to send this to you to complete. For future information please contact Susan Russam:

Director
Belfast GEMS
3rd Floor, Fanum House
108-110 Great Victoria Street
Belfast BT2 7AT
028 9033 2313 or 028 9032 9662 susan.russam@belfastgems.org

Or visit the following website http://www.belfastgems.org/

Seminars

Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure 2005: Delivering the New Deprivation Measures

The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has recently published the NI Multiple Deprivation Measure (NIMDM) 2005 which uses new measures to identify small area concentrations of multiple deprivation across Northern Ireland. These will be the official government measures of spatial deprivation and will allow for effective targeting of initiatives and resources on deprived areas.

You are invited to attend a Public Information Seminar on the New Deprivation Measures which will include:

• introduction and background to the NIMDM 2005
• new geographies used in the NIMDM 2005
• presentation and dissemination of results from the NIMDM 2005.

Seminars will be held in September in:

• Belfast 1 September @ 2.00pm
• Dungannon 15 September @ 1.00pm
• Fermanagh 16 September @ 9.30am
• Newry 21 September @ 9.30am
• Coleraine 29 September @ 1.00pm
• Derry 30 September @ 10.30am

Attendance at a public meeting is by pre-registration only. You may register by one of the following options:

Download a registration form online at:

http://www.nisra.gov.uk/whatsnew/dep/dep_2005.html

Register by email at deprivation.nisra@dfpni.gov.uk

For further information please contact Fiona Johnston on 028 9082 8210 or use the email address given above.

2005-2006 Voluntary and Community

Sector Research Seminar

The series begins on 9 September 2005 with a seminar entitled Is it worth more than small change? which looks at patterns of charitable giving by the general public. Leeann Brady from NICVA will present the findings of research which asked 1,000 individuals across Northern Ireland how much they gave to charity. Denny Elliott from the Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke Association will help ground this research in terms of his experiences of fundraising and the challenge of maintaining levels of public support.

You are invited to attend a research seminar hosted by NICVA which will examine the patterns of charitable giving in Northern Ireland.

Topic: Is it worth more than small change? An assessment of patterns of charitable giving in Northern Ireland.

Date and Time: 9 September 2005 11.00am – 12.30pm

Location: NICVA premises at 61 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast BT15 2GB.

Main Speaker: Leeann Brady (NICVA)

To register for this event please contact Andrea Burke on andrea.burke@nicva.org or 028 9087 7777. To view the rest of the seminars in this series click here.

Viewfinder 4

NICVA’s fourth Viewfinder provides an insight into the views of the sector on a range of issues, including smoking, the current political situation, the policy debate, the review of charities administration and fundraising.

Key Findings

• Smoking: 84.6% of respondents believe there should be an outright smoking ban in public places in Northern Ireland.
• Political situation: 88% of respondents feel than continued direct rule in Northern Ireland has resulted in a lack of political drive to further initiatives relevant to the sector.
• Policy debate: 54.6% of respondents feel the sector has sufficient knowledge and expertise to make a full contribution to the policy debate in Northern Ireland. Viewfinder 4 respondents have yet to see the impact of the Compact and Positive Steps initiatives.
• Governance: 61.6% respondents believe the audit and accountability requirements of funders have improved the running of their organisations.
• Fundraising: There is a need for investment in fundraising within the sector.

If you would like further information about the survey or how to include questions in future Viewfinders contact Leeann Brady as follows:

028 9087 7777 or leeann.brady@nicva.org

To see the full report visit the Community NI website below:

Read the article here

Thanks to everyone who sent information that has been included in NICVA Research Update 35. Please remember to send information about research that you have undertaken and requests for information that you would like included in the next update. Also remember to let others know about NICVA Research Updates. To register send an email entitled ‘NICVA Research Updates’ to andrea.burke@nicva.org

Andrea Burke

Research Assistant

NICVA

61 Duncairn Gardens

BELFAST BT15 2GB

028 9087 7790

028 9087 7799

andrea.burke@nicva.org

http://www.nicva.org