Making our Voices Heard in Coventry: A Quality of Life Survey
Synopsis:
Coventry’s Community Plan is designed to improve the quality life of
everyone in the city but especially those in priority neighbourhoods or
communities of interest. Residents here are more likely to experience
poorer quality of life. This is reflected in such issues as health,
educational attainment, housing, income and employment, the state of the
environment, crime and the fear of crime, anti-social behaviour,
transport and accessibility. Quality of life will improve when the gap
between these priority areas and communities and the rest of the city is
narrowed. But, getting the evidence at the neighbourhood level to
measure this has proved difficult, resulting in significant gaps in
intelligence...until now.
As part of the Making our Voices Heard pilot project – an innovative
partnership between the city’s two Universities, Coventry Partnership,
Community Empowerment Network and Area Co-ordination – a baseline
household survey was commissioned. Led by Coventry University the survey
is designed to:
- Track quality of life, initially in seven of the city’s 31
priority neighbourhoods (Canley, Hillfields, Longford Community
Forum Area, North Holbrooks, Stoke Aldermoor, West Radford,
Willenhall/Willenhall Wood)
- Generate key neighbourhood level issues that can be researched
in-depth by community researchers based in the seven neighbourhoods
- Monitor over time whether the size of the gap between priority
neighbourhoods and the rest of the city is narrowing.
- Contribute to profiles of communities that will help service
providers to understand the needs and aspirations of local
communities
Interviews were subsequently completed, during the summer of 2003,
with 2142 households in the seven priority neighbourhoods, alongside a
cross-city sample of 1130. The cross-city sample, including people from
priority neighbourhoods and the rest of the city, has enabled us to
measure and quantify the size of the gap as it currently stands.
The survey reveals residents perceptions about: neighbourhoods and
communities, housing and environment, community safety, health &
well-being, work & training, and transport and accessibility. Within
each, key indicators have been measured. These include:
- Satisfaction with the neighbourhood as a place to live
- Satisfaction with local services and facilities
- Satisfaction with cleanliness standards in the neighbourhood
- Proportion feeling safe in the homes and neighbourhoods
- Proportion experiencing anti-social behaviour
- Proportion leading healthy lifestyles
- Proportion using means other than the car as their primary mode
of travel
To download the full report please
click
here
For further information please see:
www.coventrypartnership.com |
