Community Action Team Services

Diversity Projects: Involving Hard to Reach Groups

• Could your resident participation structures be more representative of the mixed communities in your area?
• What barriers prevent vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups from getting involved?
• How can these barriers be overcome, so that hard-to-reach groups are involved in improving services, so that their needs are met?

CAT has a proven track record of working with residents to develop ways of involving under-represented groups, so that their organisation is more inclusive and representative of the mixed community in the locality.

Reaching Out: Involving Under-Represented Communities in the South Lewisham Housing Panel

Working with a Tenant Steering Group, we identified barriers to involvement and ways to overcome barriers affecting the following groups:

• Homeless Families
• People in ‘Short stay’ or temporary accommodation
• Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Groups
• Young people (18+)
• Young people (under 18)
• Asylum seekers and refugees
• Disabled people
• One parent families
• Shift workers
• Older people
• People in sheltered accommodation
• People whose 1st language isn’t English
• Lesbians and gay men
• Sub-tenants

The Tenant Steering Group said: “We are not reaching out to the people we should. This Report contains recommendations aimed at involving hard-to-reach groups and we believe that those groups will not get involved unless the recommendations are implemented”.

Pat Fordham, Chair of the Housing Panel said: “CAT were very professional and they opened our eyes about groups that had not been previously involved “.

> Download the Reaching Out report

North Canning Town Father's Project

CAT delivered the project on behalf of Sure Start, after setting up a Steering Group of dads and male carers that reflected the diversity of the local community. A survey was also carried out to identify the concerns and priorities of local dads and to show how mainstream services could be more ‘father-friendly’.