Community profiling
Assessing the housing needs of minority ethnic communities in North Lanarkshire
Introduction
Community profiling involves building up a picture of the nature, needs and experiences of a community. It is an essential step to ensuring that services and activities meet the needs of all communities.
But, it can be quite challenging. It can be particularly difficult if you are trying to find out about communities which are very small in your area. Or when very little research has been done previously.
This is the story of how we explored the housing needs of minority ethnic communities in North Lanarkshire. It highlights what we did, and what we learned along the way.
Our experience of assessing needs was always interesting, but also challenging. We hope that by writing down what we did, it can help others who might go through a similar process in another area, or with another community.
At least you won’t make exactly the same mistakes we did…!
About this document This guide is based on the experiences of ODS Consulting undertaking research for Communities Scotland, North Lanarkshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council. |
What did we do first?
In North Lanarkshire, our research was being undertaken jointly with South Lanarkshire Council and Communities Scotland. The first thing we did was got together to agree our priorities, methodology and timescales.
Our broad approach to the research was to:
§ Gather statistical information and existing research
§ Consult with minority ethnic communities
§ Consult with wider stakeholders
§ Report on key findings and recommendations
§ Develop an action plan for the future
Below we set out how we approached each of these stages.
