Establishing Need / Demand

Central to a successful project is identifying – and being able to demonstrate – the need and demand for the proposed activity. This can be achieved in a number of ways, including:

Questionnaire

Designing and distributing a brief questionnaire to potential target groups and individuals. It may be appropriate – depending on the nature of the project – to make a questionnaire more widely available through a combination of physical distribution, online publishing and face-to-face delivery.

As well as collecting project-specific data, demographic information can also be useful – the sex, age group, economic status and postcode of respondents may well be relevant to a project.

Analysis of Existing Provision

Funders will be keen to see that any project complements, rather than competes with, existing opportunities in the area. Brief research can be undertaken using the internet, and a more detailed knowledge can be gained through....

Consultation

It is worth seeking advice from key local and regional groups and organisations. This might include schools (who often have programmes targeting family and lifelong learning), local authorities and government agencies, community groups, residents’ associations, local funders and learning providers as well as talking to other organisations nationally who have undertaken similar projects.

Consultation raises awareness of your intention to start a project, provides valuable feedback on the nature and content of that project and can help to identify human, physical and financial resources that can support future work.

Community Input

It may be appropriate to hold one or more events either ‘on site’ or in the community to gauge interest in – and need for – a project. This can either be a stand-alone event, or form part of an existing initiative. You might consider encouraging creative or non-traditional responses.

Local Information

Analysing the context in which a project will operate helps not only to develop an understanding of the issues facing communities, but also to identify gaps in provision that the project might seek to fill. Information is available through local authorities and regional government offices as well as through ‘Communities and Local Government’ and the Office for National Statistics.