Research Email Briefing 37 (2 Sept 2005)

NICVA Research Update 37 (2 Sept 2005)

Index

Recent Research

The voluntary sector delivering public services: Transfer or transformation? The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a book which reviews both the political impact and the practical effect of the proposed expansion in the role of the voluntary and community sectors in the delivery of public services.

No Longer A Problem? Sectarian Violence in Northern Ireland. The Institute for Conflict Research has completed a report which provides an overview of the scale and nature of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

Interface Issues: An Annotated Bibliographyby Mary Conway and Jonny Byrne (BIP). This document represents an attempt by the Belfast Interface Project to make a body of literature more accessible to those who may be interested in interface issues.

Connections for health. A report on the social capital impact of the Actively Ageing Well initiative on community and older people’s health.

Seminars

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

Reporting civil society: Assessing the media’s view of civil society in Northern Ireland.

Recent Research

The voluntary sector delivering public services: Transfer or transformation?

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a book which contains two papers reviewing the political and practical impact of expanding the role of the voluntary and community sector in the delivery of public services. This book combines both the theoretical and the practical to offer a stimulating review of the current status and future options for the sector in this area.

Will Paxton and Nick Pearce explore two different policy agendas for the voluntary and community sector. These highlight the sectors role in providing public services and its contribution to civil renewal. The authors examine how these agendum interact and what the future might hold for the sector.

Julia Unwin and Peter Molyneux examine how best to manage the transfer from state to voluntary and community sector to deliver effective and sustainable change. Drawing on several case studies, they show how very different organisations have transformed a particular service. However, they suggest that the voluntary sector will need to do more than simply run public services more effectively, and that demonstrable improvements are vital to building public trust.

The voluntary sector delivering public services: Transfer or transformation? is available now as a paperback report, priced £9.95 or as a free PDF which can be downloaded at: http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubid=712.

If you would like further details, please contact:

Jenni Laycock
Publications Officer
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
The Homestead
40 Water End
York YO30 6WP
01904 615927
01904 615922
jenni.laycock@jrf.org.uk

No Longer A Problem? Sectarian Violence in Northern Ireland.

This report, compiled by the Institute for Conflict Research provides an overview of the scale and nature of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland. This is the third report in a series commissioned by OFMDFM on hate crime in Northern Ireland. The two previous reports were based on an analysis of police data however this has not been possible for this report, as the police only began to gather data on sectarian incidents in a systematic and centralised manner in September 2004. The data collected from the police, Housing Executive, Fair Employment Tribunals and newspaper reports reveals a somewhat patchy picture of sectarianism. It suggests that sectarian violence is worse in some areas than others and that it is a serious problem in parts of Belfast and some other urban locations. The data indicates that sectarian violence is a problem for many people in their home environment, and for others it is a problem in the workplace.

This report looks at:

• police data on sectarian incidents
• other data on sectarian violence
• fear, safety and sectarianism
• a localised review of sectarian violence
• policy developments
• political parties and sectarianism
• factors underpinning sectarian violence.

The sectarian violence report is available online: http://www.research.ofmdfmni.gov.uk/violence.pdf

Interface Issues: An Annotated Bibliography by Mary Conway and Jonny Byrne.

This document represents an attempt by the Belfast Interface Project (BIP) to make a body of literature more accessible to those who may be interested in interface issues.

The literature is divided into different reports for different areas. For example:

• Ballymurphy Women’s Centre, Women on the Edge: Conference Report. Ballymurphy Women’s Centre, (2004) Belfast
• Chris O’Halloran, Peter Shirlow and Brendan Murtagh A Policy Agenda for the Interface. Belfast Interface Project: (2004) Belfast, BIP
• Inner East Outer West. Belfast Interface Project (1999). Belfast, BIP.

This report reflects the authors’ interpretations of the provided material. It does not necessarily directly reflect the perspectives presented in each publication.

Findings.

• Security barriers and interface communities are a result of ongoing community conflict and tension in Northern Ireland.
• Research shows that interface communities have suffered a disproportionately high level of violence and disorder during the troubles.
• Although progress has been made through paramilitary ceasefire and political agreements, it is now estimated that communities are more tightly defined and defended than at any other time in history.
• The creating of barriers to limit contact between feuding communities has had limited success, as inter-communal violence has persisted even after the construction of a barrier.
• There are currently 27 Northern Ireland Office built walls, fences or barriers, which mark the boundaries between Protestant/Unionist and Catholic/Nationalist communities in Belfast, with a further ten in other areas of Northern Ireland.
• While some interface areas have recorded low levels of violence and disorder in recent years, other areas have witnessed an increase in community violence and segregation.

The collection of abstract documents is indexed by author, chronology and theme and is also available for download from www.belfastinterfaceproject.org

Accompanying this document, BIP has brought together a library of hard copies of the source materials summarised within it. This library is housed in BIP offices and is available to BIP members and key stakeholders.

Connections for health. A report on the social capital impact of the Actively Ageing Well initiative on community and older people’s health.

This research assessed the extent of changes in social capital within and between the 60 community and older people’s groups across Northern Ireland involved in Actively Ageing Well.

Findings.

• All groups reported increased levels of confidence and skills in a wide range of practical activities including the involvement of older people in the design and delivery of programmes, activity leadership in the management of community groups, liaising with service providers and other agencies.
• Two thirds of groups indicated increased confidence in running events and improved contact with other groups.
• Results from the focus groups and the telephone questionnaire highlighted the importance of the participating community and older people’s groups in the local and regional community infrastructure.
• The majority of participating groups identified that their increased confidence, skills and networks were a direct result of the services and programmes delivered through Actively Ageing Well.
• The majority of participating groups described great personal satisfaction and positive community change as a result of their involvement with the Actively Ageing Well initiative.

For further information contact:

Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland

18 Ormeau Avenue

Belfast, BT2 8HS

028 9031 1611

028 9031 1711

www.healthpromotionagency.org.uk

Seminars

2005-2006 Voluntary and Community Sector Research Seminars

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 with his experiences of fundraising and the challenge of maintaining levels of public support.

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, 61 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast BT15 2GB.

Main Speaker: Leeann Brady (NICVA)

To register for this event please contact Andrea Burke by andrea.burke@nicva.org or 028 9087 7777. To view the rest of the seminars in this series visit: http://www.communityni.org/index.cfm/section/Events/key/news300605

Reporting civil society: Assessing the media’s view of civil society in Northern Ireland.

This seminar examines how the media reports the activities of civil society. NICVA commissioned Liz Fawcett Consulting and Democratic Dialogue to undertake this research and on 13 October 2005 Liz Fawcett will go through the results of a two month analysis of various media outputs. This research was part of the CIVICUS Civil Society Index programme.

Topic: Reporting civil society: Assessing the media’s view of civil society in Northern Ireland.

Date and Time: 13 October 2005, 11.00am – 12.30pm

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

Main Speaker: Liz Fawcett (Liz Fawcett Consulting)

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

Thanks to everyone who sent information that has been included in NICVA Research Update 37. 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 7777

028 9087 7799

andrea.burke@nicva.org

www.nicva.org