Pathways Through Participation » statistics

2008-09 Citizenship survey: volunteering and charitable giving topic report

Veronique Jochum — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:30:30 +0000

Using 2008-09 Citizenship Survey data, CLG has just produced a report that looks at participation in formal and informal volunteering and trends in participation over time. It discusses the activities that volunteers do, the organisations they help, sources of information and motivations for, benefits from, and barriers to participating in volunteering. It also reports on participation in employer-supported volunteering. The report then focuses on charitable giving, looking at who gives to charity, the ways in which people give to charity and the amount of money people give.

Regarding volunteering, the report indicates that the number of people formally volunteering at least once a month has fallen since 2005 (26% in 2008-09 compared to 29% in 2005) but that people who volunteer regularly are volunteering more hours. It also notes that people who regularly participate in formal or informal volunteering are more likely to give to charity than people who are not regular volunteers.

Our nation’s civic health

Veronique Jochum — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 09:55:39 +0000

Last December CLG announced that it would be publishing produce a report on the nation’s civic health early 2010. Well, the report is now out and it’s a fantastic source of information on participation.

The main report can be dowloaded in the CLG website. Alongside the main report, a summary and an annex (with measures of civic health for each upper tier and unitary authority in England) have also been produced.

Training in narrative and mixed methods research

Sarah Miller — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:27 +0000

At the end of February, the project researchers attended a workshop on Narrative and Mixed Methods research at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies. The Centre oversees three British birth cohort studies. Data from the 1958 cohort, which includes more than 10,000 people born in Britain during one week in 1958, was used to illustrate the potential for combining qualitative and quantitative research methods, and use a narrative-based approach across methods.

Using a narrative approach allows researchers to explore how people make meaning of experience, how experience and meaning are shaped by context, and how people’s identities may be constructed by the stories they tell about themselves and their world. In the Pathways project, our interest in people’s stories about their experience of participation over their life times makes a narrative approach to data collection and analysis very appropriate. Traditionally, narrative has been associated with qualitative research, but the workshop leader, Professor Jane Elliot, explained that narrative is equally relevant in quantitative research – numbers ‘tell a story.’

Interestingly, the Centre for Longitudinal Studies is currently engaged in a piece of research focusing on social participation amongst a sub-sample of 1958 cohort members. One of its aims is to try to understand why some members are more socially engaged than others. The Pathways team will certainly be following this research as it progresses.

Ten years of ethical consumerism

Veronique Jochum — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:20:09 +0000

The Co-operative bank published end of December its annual publication on ethical consumerism. This year the report is particularly worth having a look because it covers the last 10 years. Over that period, expenditure on ethical services and goods grew almost threefold: In 2008, the overall ethical market in the UK was worth £36 billion compared to £13.5 billion in 1999. It will be interesting to see next year how the recession might have impacted on sales.

In addition to information on the sales of ethical products and services the report includes data on boycotts (food and drinks, travel, eating-out and clothing).

Government to produce an annual Civic Health Index

Veronique Jochum — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:36:00 +0000

In the Putting the frontline first: Smarter Government white paper published on 7 December, the Government announced it would “produce a regularly updated Civic Health Index from early 2010, to enable citizens and leaders to assess how well civic society is faring and how it can be enabled to thrive”.

In a statement, the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) said that the index would track the civic health of the nation, by bringing together information at the national, regional and local levels in a single report. It would include information on levels of citizen trust in public institutions and each other; levels of civic engagement and volunteering; as well as perceptions of influence, belonging and cohesion. The information will come from the DCLG’s Citizenship Survey, the Audit of Political Engagement, the National Survey of Third Sector Organisations; the Place Survey and other sources.

New Citizenship Survey results

Veronique Jochum — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:10:55 +0000

CLG recently released the new citizenship survey results for April – June 2009. The survey is a really valuable resource for our project and anyone interested in participation. Some of the statistics in the publication could be a cause for concern, especially the ones relating to public participation and community empowerment, for instance:

only 35% of people felt they could influence decisions in their local area compared to 44% in 2001.

but some are slightly more reassuring:

43% adults volunteered formally at least once in the 12 months prior to survey interview…this shows a small increase from the latest figures published for the year 2008-2009 (41%).

Interest in volunteering continues as recession deepens

Eddie Cowling — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:38:44 +0000

A recent survey by IVR shows that over the past six months, 86% of Volunteer Centres have seen an increase in volunteering enquiries.