A Rural Voice For Lincolnshire

At Community Lincs we always need up to date information to ensure that we properly represent the views of Lincolnshire’s rural communities. We need this information to help us argue the case for the delivery of rural services. We comment, for example, on things like post office closures and rural broadband. This often means that we have to undertake surveys to collate the evidence we need to make sure our views are taken seriously. We know that completing surveys takes up valuable time, both yours and ours, and can sometimes seem unproductive. We have therefore been looking at ways in which we can gather information more simply and efficiently.

Our solution is not new but it should provide an easy method of getting a snapshot of the rural community’s opinion on specific issues. We intend to use straight-forward online surveys that are presented as multi choice questions – it is unlikely that any survey will contain more than ten questions and should be completed in 5 minutes or less. Our hope is that we can create a database of community voices – people throughout Lincolnshire who are willing to form an online focus group to represent rural opinion.

We would like to start building a database now and have the project up and running by the end of March 2010. Initially we are looking at the contacts on our village halls and parish council’s database to volunteer to participate. However we don’t want to limit participation to specific groups. Whilst we hope that you will be interested in joining this project we also want to extend an invitation to participate to anyone who wants to have their say. We would therefore like you to do two things.

1.     Consider participating in the Community Voices project and provide us with your email address confirming that you would like to be involved (this doesn’t commit you to doing anything). 

2.     Encourage other people within your community to participate.

When we have enough people to make the project viable we will start to send out some surveys to test response. The project participants will receive full details of the results of all surveys. We will also take requests for ideas for surveys as soon as we are happy that the process is sound.

This is a great opportunity to build a valuable resource for Lincolnshire’s rural community. In order to make it work we need your help and that of your friends and contacts in your community. For each participant we will need a name, email address and the name of the parish in which you/they live. This information will be held in the strictest confidence by Community Lincs and will not be disclosed to any third parties. By sending us this information you are agreeing that we can use it for the purposes outlined only.

Please help us make this work. The information gathered could be of great value in helping us secure external funding for projects in Lincolnshire. It may help us to campaign to get a better deal for rural communities and it really may help you too when we start to develop surveys suggested by users. Remember, 5 minutes is all it will take to complete a survey.

To take part just provide us with your email address, your name and details of the village/parish where you live. Send them to john.slater@communitylincs.com and encourage others to do the same. It can make a difference.