Posted on December 17th, 2009 by Pathways through Participation in Archived project news
Tagged as: fieldwork, local partners, local stakeholders
2 Comments
ShareThisThe research in Suffolk is developing well and lots has happened over the last months.
With the help of our local partners - the Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations, and its member organisation, the Suffolk Volunteering Federation – I’ve been able to talk to a huge variety of people and organisations. Contacts range from local voluntary organisations to statutory organisations that work in the wider region of West Suffolk and beyond, as well as individuals who live and work in Suffolk. I’ve been visiting the local Community Partnership organisation, Young Suffolk and a Volunteer Centre. I’ve also the good fortune to attend the West Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership Annual Conference. This enabled me to experience ‘participation’ first hand, and to get a feel for how consultation about the community strategy is conducted and what the key concerns are of the delegates from across West Suffolk.
Basic things like popping into the local newsagents have also been hugely informative. Not only did I discover that that there are two rival local papers, but also that the local newsagents carry papers in Polish, Turkish and Italian, indicating some of the minority languages spoken in the area. The local papers carry a lot of relevant information relating to a wide variety of participatory activities - from donating to charity, the organisation of charity walks, to updates on recent developments in the local volunteer centre and the tensions between local councillors and residents over planning issues.
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It is a great idea to not only search out the primaty local papers, but also the “minority” papers that cater to a smaller, but more responsive market. Thanks.
I very much agree, and I have been trying to locate ‘community’ publications of any sort. So far however, I’ve been unsuccessful, though I’ve collected some flyers from different places. It’d be great if you had any local contacts or suggestions that I could follow up. Thanks.