Community Close-Ups
Community Close-Ups is a new collaboration between the research team at Community Research and the filmmakers at Postcode Films.
Combining the skills of professional researchers, data analysts, ethnographers and documentary filmmakers, we work together with community members to understand their needs and how clients’ current services or policies may or may not be suitable. Our films and reports are compelling, highly accessible and easily disseminated.
Some examples of previous Community Close-Ups collaborations include:
A close-up look at vulnerable customers’ needs.
For a water company client, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with people on low incomes or ‘just about managing’. Among those included were single parents; people with mental health issues and the recently unemployed.
Postcode Films then followed up, working with some of the participants to create detailed films about the challenges they face in their day to day lives and how the water company’s services and billing processes might impact.
A minority community’s perspective on cycling.
A local authority client was working to increase cycling activity in the borough. Survey research had shown that young Black and Minority Ethnic communities tended to reject cycling as a mode of transport. We conducted focus groups with young people from these communities to explore barriers. We then asked for volunteers to try cycling in the borough and Postcode Films captured their experiences on camera. Specific barriers to cycling were uncovered and the learning allowed the borough to develop specific strategies to encourage take up of cycling among young BAME people.
A close up look at the impact of a social housing development on a rural community.
Our housing association client wanted to understand the impact of its development schemes in rural village locations and identify any services that it might need to provide to ensure residents successfully integrate within an existing village community. We conducted mixed methods research including a survey, in-depth interviews and workshops with housing association staff. Postcode Films then spent time in a case study village, conducting interviews and finding out how the new residents had integrated from their own perspective and in the views of other villagers.