Out and about in the communities

(Part 1)

A Community Mapping Postcard

By Stephen Nicholls

Lynne, Steve, Roger, Paul and myself met up today in Redcar for the ethics workshop and plans for the survey in Skelton. We have had positive feedback on the ethics workshops in the past and this workshop was another good session in which we discussed approaches to informed consent, confidentiality and anonymity. Lynne and Steve made plans for distributing the survey with the help of Carlin How’s expertise and will be starting soon. It’s great to have a new research node on board and we are looking forward to starting work in the area.

We are pleased to report that the DVN project is now moving into its second phase of research – the computer and internet survey.

Phase 1, which included developing a community research network and mapping local ICT provision, has been a success. The community researchers and the DVN team have accessed a wide range of local services to find out what ICT provision is on offer. We are currently working on the analysis of this data and will report our findings in the autumn.

Our digital map of ICT provision across Redcar and Cleveland is under development with support from Prof Mike Lockyer from the School of Computing and Maths at Teesside University.

Some of the community mapping will continue into the second phase and we are currently broadening our network of community researchers. Adverts have gone out in the local press and we look forward to meeting potential researchers in the coming weeks. New researchers will join the existing network and start on phase 2 activities. They will receive initial training on the DVN project, ethics and safety and digital media for social research before going on to assist with the survey.

Our existing community researchers have evaluated their initial training sessions and we are pleased to report that the workshops have been a success.

The household survey will begin in October 2009. Community researchers have taken part in workshops 4 and 5 and are currently preparing their survey distribution strategies. The survey will take place in Moorsholm, Redcar, Skinningrove, Carlin How and Saltburn. It aims to generate information on computer and internet use within these communities. We aim to answer questions such as, ‘How many people currently have broadband access in the home?’, ‘How often do people use the internet at home?’ and ‘What are people using the internet for?’.

We would like to thank everyone who has taken part so far in phase 1 of the research and community researchers for helping us to successfully deliver the first part of the project. We look forward to starting phase 2 in the autumn (2009).

Following the community mapping exercise, the research is now moving into the second stage – the community survey. Workshops are now taking place in Carlin How and Saltburn and the team is busy piloting the questionnaire.

Last week the Carlin How group took part in the first of two linked workshops – ‘designing a community survey’. They then filled in the questionnaire themselves to spot any glitches and give their views on the content of the questionnaire. This week’s workshop – ‘distributing a community survey’ – is dedicated to developing community-based strategies for distributing the questionnaire. Meanwhile, the first cohort of researchers will start their workshops this week.

We would like to thank everyone who has taken part in the community survey so far and also the community researchers for doing a great job working with our participants. We are also currently working on developing our digital map which will be ready to view in the autumn.

The Carlin How researchers met with Paul and Carrie yesterday for the workshop on digital media. ICT connectivity was not available so the group discussed ways of using the research blog and will follow this up with blogging activities with Steve at the school over the summer.

The group also used the workshop space to plan the community mapping in Carlin How and Brotton. The researchers are about to start visiting service providers and organisations in their mapping zone.

The group also talked about the recent job losses in Carlin How and how this impacts on the local community. Stories about the impact of the recession on local livelihoods can be found in the Gazette.

The second Carlin How workshop took place yesterday at the local community centre. The workshop focused on research ethics and safety in the field. We had some really interesting discussions about confidentiality and anonymity in small communities where many people know each other. We also discussed ways of keeping safe when out and about doing research. This research group will soon be able to join the first research group at Margrove Park for the next phase of workshops (4 and onwards) and the survey phase of the research.

The Carlin How group are starting their own research soon by mapping local organisations and access to ICTs in the village. This will provide us with more information about village needs. Meanwhile, researchers from cohort 1 are continuing to collect their datasheets in neighbouring areas.

Our second group of researchers, Amanda, Roger and Marion met at Carlin How Jubilee Hall yesterday for an introduction to the DVN by Paul and Carrie. It’s great to have new people coming on board and we are really looking forward to working in Carlin How and the surrounding area. It’s also fascinating to learn about the different villages and towns in East Cleveland. This group will join the first group of researchers in helping out with the ICT mapping. We are looking forward to our second workshop next week.

This is a bit of a test to see if this works and if it does we can start to map the distribution of community mapping tasks… These are the DVN researchers located in place. Click on the balloons to find out who is researching where.

The community researchers from Carlin How (Amanda, Marion and Roger) and Margrove Park (Marian with Margaret), along with Steve and Carrie, met again today to take part in the return leg of the photographic walkabout in Carlin How.

We rendezvoused at the primary school and started the walkabout at the pond and the railway line which leads to the steelworks.

After gaining some photos there we then went back via Amanda’s house where she showed us some photos of her house and the street when it was flooded. We then walked up to the row of village shops before crossing the road and going down to the bottom part of Carlin How to photograph the churches, Mount Pleasant, the steelworks and the beautiful coastline from the top of the cliffs.

Here you can see the jetty at Skinningrove and a little further on, the village of Skinningrove in the valley below.

The weather was mostly kind, with the exception of some strong gusts of wind. The walkabouts to date have been so interesting in terms of learning about local history and the researchers’ own experiences of their local communities. It has also been a good opportunity for cross-village networking and getting to know each other more. We hope that the resulting postcards will facilitate some great community stories.

Steve and I went to Margrove Park today to meet Marian and make plans for our first community photography day. The photographs will, with village members’ permission, be used on our digital postcards. We hope that the photos will inspire some interesting stories about local communities.

The community photography day, to be held next Wednesday (13th) – weather permitting – is open to all to take part. After discussion we decided that we should work in groups to photograph specific parts of the area. We will focus on taking photos that will faciliate community storytelling. Here’s hoping for a warm and sunny afternoon.