Study Approaches

Community Profiling involves building up a picture of a community (a geographical area and those living in it), how this is changing, ways in which is similar to or different from other communities and the patterns amongst sub-communities within it, using a variety of already-available data (especially from the census and official sources of data) combined with survey and other fresh data-collections.

Community Study involves developing a more in-depth understanding of why particular processes (e.g. power, inter-group relations, policing, development pattern) are the way they are in a particular community.

Needs Analysis is a (usually focused, although often broad)  attempt to identify and usually quantify the unmet concerns and needs (both objective and subjective) of those belonging to a particular grouping and/or community in order to bring these concerns to the attention of policy-makers and/or community leaders.

(Social) Forecasting is the attempt to project into the future likely developments, usually on the basis of some form of extrapolation of recent trends.

Quotes

Source: What is community profiling? from Murray Hawtin et al Community Profiling: auditing social needs Buckingham: Open University Press

“A comprehensive description of the needs of a population that is defined, or defines itself as a community, and the resources that exist within that community carried out with the active involvement of the community itself, for the purpose of developing an action plan or other means of improving the quality of life in the community” (p5).

Expansion on the elements of the core definition:

1. “The totality of individuals’ and communities’ lives do not conform to departmental and agency boundaries. The difficulties which people experience in their everyday lives cannot be neatly defined as ‘housing problems’ or ‘health’ or ‘social isolation’”.. so “Community profiles which are comprehensive in their coverage will challenge that bureaucratic departmentalism as well as more accurately reflecting the reality of people’s lives”(p5).
   
2. “..it is vital that a community profile describes not only the needs of a community but also the resources that exist within the community. By resources we mean assets held in the area and put to use for the benefit of the community. These could include, for example, the housing stock, parks, hospitals and community centres as well as people’s time and expertise made available to others, or the employment opportunities within a given area and their product, service or wealth-distributing function. In any community there are also under-utilised resources; it may be important to find out why they are under-utilised and how they can be utilised more effectively more effectively. There are also likely to be potential resources, for example derelict buildings pr vacant land which, while they serve no useful purpose at the moment, could be put to the use of the community with appropriate changes. ..>We also mean those intangible resources that are a source of strength and potential within the community. These might include things such as the skills – both formal and informal – of members of the community, networks of support such as families, households and neighbours, resilience and determination.” (p6)

"The concept of need is still the subject of considerable debate. That debate has focused on whether there is such a thing as objective need, who should count what courts as need, how such needs can be researched and how it is possible to choose between competing needs” (pp6,7).

3. Perhaps the most common description of a community is that of a group of people who live or work in the same geographical location, for example a housing estate or neighbourhood. However, we might also want to define communities in terms of an administrative area, such as a school catchment area, social services area or the area served by a particular health authority” (p7).
   
   
4. “..It is possible to profile a community without the active involvement of that community. However, the description that results is likely to be different in certain significant respects from one which actively involves member of the community” (p7). Involvement “..is likely to result in a fuller, more comprehensive and more accurate description of a community and hence form a better basis on which to make decisions about provision and the way forward., It is an important way in which a community can be  empowered through the development of skills, confidence and awareness of issues relating to the community” (p8)
   
   
5. “The aim of the community profile must be to improve the quality of life of members of that community. One way.. is through the development of an action plan which identifies issues, priorities and action to be taken, sets goals and targets and proposes a means of monitoring progress toward their achievement” (p8)
   
   
6. “It is crucial that all the elements that go to make up the profile  - who is to be involved in the profile, the type of information to be collected, the methods to be used to collect it and the values embodied in the process – should all reflect the aims, objective and ultimate purposes of the community profile” (p9).
   
   
7. “The best community profiles are those which not only efficiently and accurately collect, analyse and present information about the community, but which do so in a way that reflects adherence to, and practical implementation of a set of values. The first of these is respect for the community to be profiled” (p9).

 

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