Evaluating your findings

By now you will have lots of information about your community and its environment, but what have you found, what does it mean and what do other people think? 

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A simple way of bringing together and making sense of the information you have collected is to do a SWOT analysis.  This is an easy method of evaluating your place under four headings: 

  • Strengths: what is successful, and what sets your place apart from others?  

  • Weaknesses: what is missing, unsuccessful or could be improved, or what put your place at a disadvantage? 

  • Opportunities: where is there is chance for change, or are there external factors that offer an opportunity to make improvements? 

  • Threats: are there conditions that are harmful to the success or character of your place, or that could damage its chances to improve? Can anything be done to address or neutralise these? 

It is important that your SWOT analysis involves your whole team and reflects the outcomes of your community engagement activities. The opportunities that present themselves can be addressed in various ways: as preparatory projects that might inform the development of your plan (for example, traffic analysis or a community energy survey), as part of your vision or as desirable actions to strive to achieve in the future. The SWOT process will help you brainstorm ideas for the future which are based on the evidence you have gathered. 

A group of people completing a SWOT assessment

Questions to ask: 

  • How can we build on our strengths? 

  • How can we improve areas of weakness? 

  • How can we take advantage of opportunities, now and in the future? 

  • How can we address each threat? 

Comparing your place

It is important to look at your place in the context of other places in your area. This can help you understand what you do well and to make sure that neighbouring places have complimentary future visions and plans.

Questions to ask: 

  • What is the relationship between your place and those surrounding it? Do you cooperate or is there ‘friendly rivalry’?

  • What is the same as neighbouring places, and what makes your place unique?

  • What is your ‘unique selling point’?

  • Are there other places locally, nationally or internationally that have similar priorities?