Masterreport (1)
- 1. Report on the Centenary Quay Community Business Plan Prepared December 2016 by Dean Berjawi, June Chen, Claire Cheung, Katie Baulkwill
- 2. 1 Cover letter Dear Reverend Miles, In accordance with your request to extend welcome to the residents of the new development of Centenary Quay through addressing the needs of the new population, we have created a report outlining our suggestions based upon research of the area. Firstly, determining the demographics of the population was important to target the specific needs of the residents and amplify the benefit of the Church’s solutions. The executive summary discusses the methods that were used to determine the demographics of the residents. A multitude of techniques were used, including questionnaires, contacting developers and the use of postcode analysis. The results and responses from these were then used to determine the most pressing needs of the community in order to decide upon the most appropriate solutions. The solutions relate to issues identified by participants in the questionnaire. The most pressing issues were found to be lack of sense of community and lack of knowledge regarding existing activities as discussed in the solution recommendation section. The recommended solutions mentioned within the report aim to strengthen St Mark’s Institute’s ability to tackle these issues. This will help to attain the overarching goal of spreading the love of God. The following report includes an executive summary of the methods used to achieve the Church’s goals, a background section on information about the establishment of Centenary Quay, solution recommendations and an implementation plan. The additional references include the questionnaire that participants completed.
- 3. 2 Table of Contents Cover letter……………………………………………………………………1 Table of Contents……………………………………………………………..2 Executive summary…………………………………………………………..3 Background…………………………………………………………………...4 Results………………………………………………………………………....5 Solution recommendation…………………………………………………………..7 Implementation plan………………………………………………………....9 Additional references………………………………………………………..10
- 4. 3 Executive summary St Mark’s Institute expressed interest about the new development of Centenary Quay in Woolston, and were particularly keen to show the love of God in action to the residents moving into this new development. The institute aimed to meet the needs of the new population, hence were particularly interested in the demography of Centenary Quay, to help identify the demands of the residents. Through understanding the types of people living in the development, the age structure, employment status etc. gaps in the provision of services can be identified, and St Mark’s can find a way to fulfil these needs. The housing development is relatively new, being still in construction, hence online information regarding the population is limited. For this reason, to achieve the goals of understanding the population of Centenary Quay and their needs, we decided it was most practical to interview participants within the housing community. The questionnaires contained questions relating to the types of people within the community, as well as their individual needs identified. 23 questionnaires were completed through the process of face-to-face and online questionnaires – whereby participants were targeted through the Centenary Quay Residents Facebook group, and through posting slips into letterboxes. Another method of finding information about Centenary Quay was to contact the developers, and those who worked closely with Centenary Quay, to find out in-depth information and statistics regarding the housing development itself. To unravel information about Centenary Quay, we identified 4 main points of contact. Firstly, we contacted James, who is the Centenary Quay concierge. The site secretary of the Crest Nicholson Developer was contacted as well as the managing agent and several members of the Housing Association. As the final part of analysis, we made use of a programme called Acorn which conducts postcode analysis of the area. Acorn works through analysing demographic data, social factors, population and consumer behaviour to gather understanding about the types of people living in an area. The demographic data on service use, health and wellbeing, finance, consumer health and lifestyle characteristics are all gathered from government and commercial companies. 2,500 open data sources are used such as MasterCard data, land registry etc. and combined to assign a type to every postcode. The programme segments postcodes and neighbourhoods into one of 6 categories to summarise resident characteristics, this then allows for pressing issues and needs of the targeted area to be established. These 3 methods allow for a greater understanding of the residents of CQ, which in turn means that the Church can tailor activities aimed at benefitting the community as well as spreading the love of God and the Church’s ethos and values.
- 5. 4 Background CQ is a relatively new community. According to information provided by the Housing Association, 654 out of 657 completed properties have been sold and are now occupied, with 234 properties out of 657 being affordable housing. These 234 properties will be split between rented and shared ownership. Around 963 further properties will be built over the coming years. According to the sales office, CQ already has underground parking facilities and a multi-storey car park under development. Commercial units are being built and will be used for shipping amongst other things. There are a number of supermarkets such as Lidl and Morrisons not far from CQ and more shops will be set up in CQ itself. In addition to the existing library, there will also be a gym, cafe and other communal facilities. The central square in CQ is big enough for children to play and do other activities. CQ as a whole is expected to be finished in 7 years time. There is currently a real mix of nationalities, ages and occupations amongst CQ residents. Most households are families and young couples, though residents cover a wide range of ages. The results of our survey give a greater insight into trends within these categories.
- 6. 5 Results Results from postcode analysis Following postcode analysis by Acorn, Centenary Quay was found to reside in category 3 ‘comfortable communities’. This category by Acorn suggests that there are educated families in terraces, with young children living within Centenary Quay. This tells us that the residents consist of younger couples at the earlier stages of their career, with some having started families. The occupations of people living within this area tend to be white-collar, junior managerial or professionals allowing for their household incomes to be higher than average. They are found however to have financial pressures and to be a group that are only re-paying the minimum each month for credit cards, and some being in their overdraft. Despite this, they are likely to have modest savings and ISAs. According to Acorn, the residents within Centenary Quay are moderately frequent users of the Internet, but enjoy active lifestyles with evening social and leisure activities. These people tend to have smartphones and are more prevalent app users than the average. Some within this residency are likely to respond to advertising posters and internet ads. Results from questionnaires
- 7. 6 The bar chart above shows that 77% of the participants who filled out our questionnaire are aged 34 and below. When asked what activities they would participate in, all but a few responded that they would like to be involved in some sort of sport activities with others expressing their interest in family orientated or recreational activities. Charging for these activities will be difficult as not many are willing to pay more than £5/ per week thus subsidisation may be required. It is important to reduce levels of apathy to achieve a sense of community, this could be achieved by informing the residence of CQ through social media about present activities open for participation, my observation correlates with the postcode analysis we had access to. This is because our target audience seem to be young adults with the majority of them expressing their views that although activities occur in and around the area they are ill informed about the details. A high proportion of responding residence are currently living with a partner, either married or cohabitating. However, it is important not to isolate any section of the community.
- 8. 7 Solution recommendation One of the main concerns that we came across during our research was that Centenary Quay lacks any real sense of community. This is where we believe St Mark’s Church and Peartree Church could play a vital role. The majority of people surveyed said that they hardly knew their neighbours and that any activities previously organised by residents were met with a lack of enthusiasm. This may partly be down to the fact that large parts of CQ are still under development and a significant number of homes that have already been completed are yet to be occupied. Many of the residents that we talked to had only lived there a matter of months, so this really is a relatively new community. The Church is well positioned to play a role in bringing residents together and we have a number of ideas that we believe would meet the wants and needs of the CQ community. 1) Community gatherings Cake sales, BBQs in the summer, a quiz evening - events that will allow people to talk and get to know each other. 2) Activities for children Suggestions included playgroups for babies and young children that would bring parents together and allow them to socialise. Activities such as Messy Church could be promoted in CQ as a number of residents were unaware of its existence and expressed an interest. 3) Activities for teenagers/young people According to Kate Dench from Radian, one of the most pressing social issues facing the community is youth anti social behaviour. Activities for young people, particularly during the school holidays, would greatly benefit the local community. One of the most popular requests made by the young people we surveyed was for sports or fitness related activities. 4) Fitness sessions/sports Nearly half of the residents that we surveyed suggested exercise related activities. St Mark’s and Peartree Churches could organise community fitness sessions, such as a weekend running group or outdoors circuits. These sessions could be lead by a volunteer either from the Church or CQ and would ideally be free to join. One of the main issues identified by our survey was that a large number of residents were simply unaware of the activities going on in their local community. A large number were also unaware of the location of either St Mark’s Church or Peartree Church and what sort of events they hold. Over 75% of Centenary Quay residents surveyed were between 18 and 34 years old. This age group relies significantly on social media as a means of communicating and organising activities or events. According to ‘The Statistics Portal’, there were 10.7
- 9. 8 million Facebook users in the UK in the first quarter of 2016 aged 20-29 and 32 million Facebook users in total. Facebook is one of the most powerful means of communication in our society and perhaps one of the most effective means of reaching out to residents of Centenary Quay. The Church could post about their events on the Centenary Quay Residents Group Facebook page. This would of course involve creating a Facebook page for St Mark’s Church and Peartree Church in order to provide up-to-date information on church services, events held by the Church and the work that it is doing in the local community. Creating a Facebook page would help increase awareness about the Church’s activities and could be used to direct people to the Church’s existing websites. These websites also need to be updated more frequently with upcoming events. If the Facebook pages are successful, the Church’s use of social media could be extended to include other platforms such as Twitter. Having said this, it is also important to recognise that not all members of the community use social media on a regular basis or at all. Publicising events using fliers is always a good way of ensuring everyone has access to information about events, though this would involve some costs. Fliers can be posted through residents’ letterboxes and pinned up on the notice boards in the foyer of each apartment block. In January, two representatives will be chosen from each block in CQ to deal with any issues concerning residents. Radian’s Community Development Officer for CQ, Kate Dench, is organising this. Getting in contact with these representatives would be a good way of communicating with the CQ residents, further understanding their needs as the community develops and organising events for residents. It is important to recognise that the CQ community is very much in its infancy. Community activities need to be developed and introduced over time and as more and more people move into CQ, the easier it should be to get people involved.
- 10. 9 Implementation Plan Immediate action The first step for St Mark’s and Peartree Churches would be to create an official Facebook page for each church and use this as a platform to communicate with CQ residents. The CQ residents’ Facebook group can be used as a means of connecting residents to the churches’ respective websites. Alongside this, the websites for both churches need updating with details of upcoming events and activities. The most effective way of implementing these recommendations would be to create a small team of volunteers. A couple of volunteers could be put in charge of maintaining the websites and the Facebook pages and another group of volunteers can focus specifically on the Centenary Quay community. Ideally, these volunteers would be CQ residents. Organising community events in conjunction with the Church would give volunteers a sense of ownership and belonging by empowering them to invest in their community and contribute at a local level. Getting in touch with the CQ Residents Group and with the resident representatives once they have been selected in January would be the quickest way of recruiting volunteers. Over the next six months Within the next couple of months, it would be worth organising a number of events aimed at bringing CQ residents together such as a quiz evening or a cake sale. The summer will provide more opportunities to hold community events as the nicer weather will allow CQ’s outdoor areas to be used for events such as BBQs or activities for children. Over the next year Once a greater sense of community has been established at CQ over the coming year, it will be easier to set-up more specific activities such as fitness sessions or children's playgroups to be held more frequently on a regular basis. By 2020, there will be a communal hall in CQ that can be used for some of these activities.
- 11. 10 Additional References Questionnaire for residents of Centenary Quay: 1. What is your age? 2. What is your current occupation? 3. How many people do you live with and what is their relationship to you? 4. How long have you lived in Centenary Quay? 5. How well do you know your neighbours and members of your local community? 6. Do you currently participate in any activities in your local community? - If yes, what are these activities? - If no, why is this? 7. What types of activities would you participate in if they were available in this neighbourhood? e.g. book club, coffee morning, prayer group, sports activities 8. Would you be willing to pay for this activity? If so, how much? 9. Which day of the week would would suit you best for this activity? 10. What time of day would be suit you best?