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Section D:
Choosing The Method, A Guide to Community Consultation and Research Methods

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Choosing The Method, A Guide to Community Consultation and Research Methods:

Face To Face Interviews
Telephone Interviews
Self Completion Questionnaires
Focus Groups
In Depth Interviews
Community Visioning
Mystery Customers
Consulting Representative Groups
User Complaints and Comments Scheme
Public Meetings
Road shows exhibition open days
Citizens Jury
Service User Groups
Planning For Real
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Fish Bowl Technique
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Community Visioning

Summary	This is an exercise that helps a community to establish an image of the future it would like. The idea is to involve the community in identifying the issues that matter and in creating a shared vision. Methods used in community visioning can be quite diverse but usually involve getting people together to discuss/consider the issue with the help of a skilled facilitator. The aim is to achieve a consensus – i.e. a shared vision. Top
Examples	Bradford has recently used community visioning to develop the 2020 Vision. The process involved a large number of different groups, including the public, voluntary organisations, community groups, young people, other agencies, Council staff, the business community etc. A series of meetings and events were held where these groups were able to have their say on how they would like to see Bradford develop in the next 20 years. An example of one of the 2020 visioning events is set out below. The aim was to bring together a good cross section of women: Girls and young women; women with small children; middle aged women; older women; women who are and women who are not working outside home; women with disability. The Community Development Service organised the event jointly with the Millan Centre. This is a women’s project, which has a good reputation within the community and has experience at organising events that attract large numbers of women. Working with people involved in the centre was the key to the success of this consultation. For the 2020 Vision work one consultation event was targeted principally at Muslim women, and was attended by 85 women. It was agreed that the best way to encourage more women to participate in this consultation process was to organise an event that would offer a combination of socialising, entertainment and discussion. This was seen as a way to encourage women to get involved who did not have any previous experience of or may be put off by the idea of a ‘consultation’. The entertainment took the form of traditional music, singing, drumming and dancing, with mendhi (henna painting), and food was provided. In order to reduce the barriers to women’s participation a crèche was provided. Leaflets were produced in English and Urdu. The wording on the leaflets was carefully chosen to encourage interest and confidence that this was an event where everyone could participate and contribute. Leaflets were circulated to groups, schools, mosques and workers across the district, with the offer of transport being available for groups who were traveling from other areas. There was a group specifically for girls and young women with facilitators that were known to many of the participants. A small number of deaf young women attended the event and they participated in the discussion groups and plenary with the aid of an interpreter. Top
Useful for	Community planning and the corporate aspects of Best Value. Encouraging creative thinking. Top
Not useful	Where a representative view is required. Top
Equal Rights	Can be designed to ensure that minority and hard to reach groups in the community are involved (see example above). Top
Costs	This can vary greatly depending on the scale of the exercise, but is usually between £5,000-£10,000 per event. Top
Time Scale	Again, this can vary greatly depending on the scale of the exercise, but usually takes between 1-3 months. Top
Contact	Pat Fairfax	01274 434994

	Kersten England	01274 434910









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Section C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Section E


		Introduction and Framework Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E

Maintained by:

Mike Barnett

ERDF