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The Engaging Partnerships project was conceived in 2002 by the Black and MinorityEthnic (BME) Steering Group with the aim of involving a broad range of groups who couldbe considered to be hard to reach. The Engaging Partnerships project was developed inthe wider context of the embryonic Bolton Community Network and the developingLocal Strategic Partnership. The Great Lever Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder(NMP) also had a major role in the development of the project. The Great LeverNeighbourhood Management Pathfinder, along with Bolton Community Network andBolton Council for Voluntary Service made a commitment to invest resources in abaseline study (phase one). The project is a long term study of the involvement of hard toreach and black and minority ethnic organisations in local partnership activity.

Aim and Context

This report represents the second phase of an on-going

project being led by Bolton’s Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)

Steering Group. One of the project aims is to identify some of

the barriers that affect how local groups get involved in

partnership working. The phase two report follows initial

research undertaken in 2002 into how local organisations can

engage more effectively with hard to reach and minority

ethnic groups. The report charts developments in services and

support to local groups since phase one of the project.

Local ownership has been central to the design and delivery of

the Engaging Partnerships Project from the outset. Local

people were recruited and trained to undertake the original

research. A local manager was recruited to co-ordinate

activities and many of the subsequent developments have

been as a direct result of this local focus. Phase two of the

Engaging Partnerships Project includes a review of the original

research, an overview of developments to date and a series of

recommendations for local agencies that may be considered

for future phases of the project.

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Summary ofPhase One Report

The phase one study was delivered by a team of locally

recruited and trained researchers who identified key

hard to reach groups using existing database information

held by Steering Group partners and identified further

groups using a ‘snowball’ sampling approach. Snowball

sampling is a simple, yet very effective technique: one

participant from a group identifies another participant or

group who, in turn, identifies a third, and so forth.

Snowball sampling was agreed by the steering group to

be an essential strategy in accessing local hard to reach

groups.

140 groups were involved in the project. Of these groups130 (93%) agreed to be added to the Bolton Council forVoluntary Service database. Of the groups involved 47%stated that they provided services specifically for black andminority ethnic communities. Almost half of the groupsinvolved in the study identified themselves as black andminority ethnic groups.

39% of the groups involved had no formal legal status andno constitution. These groups were either unaware ofissues relating to legal status or were in the early stages ofdevelopment.

In addition researchers attempted to gain access to groupsof disabled people, women’s groups, lesbian, gay, bi-sexualand transgender (LGBT) groups, travellers groups andasylum seekers and refugee groups. Researchers reportedsome success in reaching most of these groups apart fromgroups representing the LGBT community. A small numberof groups refused to engage with the project and presentedas ‘cautious’ and ‘suspicious’ about the motives of theproject and the researchers.

51% of the groups involved in the project experiencedserious financial difficulty that inhibited them from meetingtheir group aims. 33% of the groups involved had noincome and a further 21% had only short-term, projectspecific funding of less than £1,000. The groups who werein receipt of funding had accessed it in grant form through arange of sources; Grants administered by Bolton Councilfor Voluntary Service (33%); Grants from Bolton Metro(32%); Private donations (21%); National Lottery GoodCauses (11%); Charitable Trusts and Foundations (3%).32% of the groups involved stated lack of knowledge aboutfunding as a key issue with support, information andinternal resources (time, staff) also playing a part.

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KeyRecommendationsFrom Phase One

Groups reported that internal capacity issues and funding

had a major impact on their ability to become involved

with partnership activities. 75% of groups required

support with funding; 48% with publicity; 41% with

computer skills and 41% with language issues. Issues

affecting groups ability to access current services and

support included language issues, lack of awareness of

available services and perceptions of how services are

delivered. In particular some religious and cultural

organisations were concerned that involvement from

external agencies would have a negative impact on their

internal value system.

25% of the groups were involved with some form of

partnership activity with another organisation.

30% of groups had heard of the Local Strategic

Partnership and 51% had heard of the Bolton

Community Network. Researchers reported a high level

of cynicism from groups relating to partnerships and

networks as well as a lack of general understanding of

the relevance of such networks and partnerships. On

contact with researchers 77% of the groups expressed

the desire to become involved with Bolton Community

Network.

Groups can only participate effectively in partnership

working when they are operating effectively themselves

– a small hard to reach group should not be expected to

finance their own partnership involvement, for example a

group with a part time worker doing 4 hours admin per

week, should not have to find additional resources to

send their staff to partnership meetings. Individually

tailored support packages should be put in place to

develop the capacity of each group to become involved

in wider partnership work. Resources should be

targeted to support such developments. Information

about services should be made accessible using a variety

of approaches.

Practical issues relating to partnership working should be

discussed between local organisations and agencies and a

‘good practice’ guide could be developed to cover issues

such as funding, training and support for groups.

Lack of awareness about basic services indicates that a

more direct approach may be required to distribute

information relating to support activities. Outreach

services offered on a one-to-one basis may be more

effective than paper methods. Whilst 51% of groups had

heard of the Bolton Community Network when

questioned by researchers, 77% wanted to become

involved, an increase of 26% as a result of the

information given by researchers.

Barriers to Involvement

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

1

% of Groups

Lack of Time/Staff Childcare/Transportation

Funding/Finance Language/Communication

Access

Fig. 1

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There should be greater utilisation of existing resource

centres. Issues relating to use of existing resources

include lack of awareness of the relevance of such centres

and lack of confidence of group members. Groups may

need to be informed directly of the availability of

resources and in some cases will need initial support to

access such services. Groups reported that a personal

approach by a specific contact person was significant in

building a rapport and confidence in the services offered.

Some groups are not involved in partnership working

because they do not feel it is relevant to them. Local

organisations and agencies should devise means to

communicate the relevance of partnership activity and be

clear how this is of relevance to the groups. Clear

information packs and open and friendly, one-to-one

discussions will encourage a greater understanding.

Partnerships need to value the involvement of local

groups and this could be reflected in practical support for

example through the provision of expenses, childcare and

organisational costs incurred.

A number of groups stated that the language used in

meetings is often aimed at professionals and can be

excluding. Organisations and agencies taking a lead on

partnership activity should aim to minimise jargon and

extend the use of plain English. Use simple language

wherever possible and where jargon is unavoidable,

provide a ‘jargon buster’ to explain key terms. This will

help to ensure accessibility. Training sessions on jargon

busting at an introductory level may also be useful for

groups and professionals alike.

Where there are likely to be ongoing issues relating to

representation at partnership level, it may be worth

considering specialised projects to bring such organisations

together and support more effective involvement. A good

local example of this is the Health and Care Together

Project. This project offers support to local groups that

have a health or care focus and helps these groups to be

involved in a meaningful way with a wide range of existing

partnerships across the Health and Care sectors in the

Borough.

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• Bolton Council for Voluntary Service (CVS) have targeted new, small and harder to reach groups with information about support services available and funding administered by the organisation. A roadshow of CVS projects and services has been rolled out across the Borough and has been successful in attracting a wide range of new groups. Workshops offered at the roadshows, as well as a wide range of workshops offered more widely have led to an increase in the number of groups applying for grants through CVS. In round three of the Community Chest Grants only 11% of applications from BME groups were successful. With targeted information and support this has risen to 50% in the last round(round eight).

• A new project focussing on faith organisations has been developed over the last twelve months. The Interfaith project aims to bring together local groups from a broad range of faith backgrounds and enable effective partnership involvement at a range of levels from local community forums to the Bolton Local Strategic Partnership. The project has worked with a number of other agencies including the Bolton Racial Harmony Forum, Bolton Hindu Forum and Bolton Council of Mosques.

• One of the local researchers from phase one of the Engaging Partnerships Project has gone on to a post working within traveller communities. Working with the Traveller Education Service this worker has begun to act on some of the issues raised during the project including the development of a women’s travellers group.

EngagingPartnerships -Phase Two

At this stage of the project the aim is to assess key

developments in services and support to local groups

and to assess the impact of these developments on the

groups from the original study. At this interim stage it is

not possible to assess the full impact of the project,

nonetheless, a number of positive achievements have

been recorded over the past eighteen months including:

• A partnership project between the Great Lever

Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder, Bolton

Council for Voluntary Service and Bolton Community

College; the ‘Great Lever Community Involvement

Project’ is twelve months old. The community

involvement project is delivered by a team of locally

recruited and trained community involvement officers

who work throughout the pathfinder area to

encourage local involvement in community and

partnership activities.

• Also building on the success of the one-to-one

approach as recommended in phase one of the

Engaging Partnerships Project is the Bolton

Community Network Ambassadors Project. Again

working with locally recruited and trained people, this

project is leading on work linked to capacity building

activities with many of the groups involved in phase

one.

• Almost one hundred groups from the original study

have accessed a one-to-one needs analysis with

Community Network Ambassadors. Each group is

now involved in designing their own package of

tailored training and support. Almost 70 of these

groups have become involved with forums attached to

the Bolton Community Network and have accessed

training and support from CVS and other local

agencies.

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• The Green House Project is based at a council owned

property in the Deane area of Bolton. ERDF funding

has enabled the project to carry out a very successful

weekend of workshops, which attracted a diverse

representation of the local communities. Bolton at

Home funding has allowed the Green House to

organise healthy eating and English language teaching

which has been carried out a local refugee/asylum

seeker 'drop in' by volunteers from The Greenhouse.

CVS administered grants have allowed the support of a

youth group, purchase of a copy printer and other

office supplies.

A new lottery funded development worker who is to

be based at The Greenhouse will be targeting BME

communities. The worker will look at creating an

environmental education network, capacity building

sessions and combining English teaching with practical

English teaching activities. The worker will also facilitate

an annual multi-cultural festival to be held locally, in

conjunction with local volunteers.

• Through the Transforming Youth Work Plan, Bolton

Youth Service has developed a post to address and

develop black and minority ethnic participation within

the Youth Service. Achievements include:

• A community event held to raise the profile of

the Youth Service within ethnic minority

communities.

• Partnership with Bolton Ethnic Minority Business

Service to develop the capacity of local groups

to access mainstream youth provision.

• Targeted youth work activity within specific

areas of the Borough to reach minority ethnic

communities.

FurtherRecommendations– Phase Three Priorities

The BME Steering Group agreed that the

recommendations from phase one are retained and that

progress will be evaluated on an ongoing basis (as in fig 3

below).

Based on the European Framework for Quality

Management (EFQM)

Revisit originalreccomendations

Monitor andreview the

improvements

Develop andintroduce

improvements

Prioritise the areasthat need improving

Collect informationto establish where

you are

Identify strengthsand areas forimprovement

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Throughout the Engaging Partnerships Project certain

hard to reach groups have been under represented (e.g.

disability groups and LGBT groups). Further in depth

work will be needed to enable these groups to become

involved with partnership activities. In some cases the

groups may be so informal that they do not even

recognise themselves as a group. In such cases intensive

one to one development support will be important in

raising the capacity of the groups to engage effectively

and bring their valuable contributions to local partnership

working.

The Engaging Partnerships Project was begun in 2002

with the aim of involving a broad range of groups who

could be considered hard to reach. It has become

evident throughout the project that in many instances it

is not the groups that are hard to reach but more often a

failure on the part of local organisations to meet them.

Local partnerships need to carefully examine their own

internal structures and cultures and make changes that

will support increased involvement from a wide range of

groups.

Groups that have participated in the project have

indicated that one to one contact with Bolton

Community Network Ambassadors has been most

helpful in allowing them to participate with the project. It

is recommended that this approach be continued as the

first point of contact for hard to reach groups. Local

agencies should consider using the Community Network

Ambassadors for similar projects as the existing expertise

and contacts will prove beneficial.

From phase one it could be seen that there are specific

issues facing many groups from within Black and Minority

Ethnic Communities (language issues, concerns over

cultural ‘diluting’, childcare, resources). The BME

Steering Group support the recommendation that a

specific post be developed to work with these groups.

Part of the remit of this post would be to develop a BME

forum as part of the Bolton Community Network. This

forum will enable wider involvement of smaller and

newer groups from BME communities. A Black and

Minority Ethnic Groups development post will also allow

services to be targeted at more hidden groups.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to the groups and individuals who have taken the

time to become involved in the Engaging Partnerships

Project.

Thanks to all the partners on the BME Steering group for

time, energy and expertise contributed to the project.

Thanks to the funders;

• The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit

• Great Lever Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder

• Bolton Community Network

• Bolton Council for Voluntary Service.