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“ETHNOS is committed to excellence. Its staff care about everything from standards in recruitment to relevance of recommendations.
They are passionate about bringing out the best that research has to offer. They approach each project in a fresh and personalised way, providing their clients with new and more powerful perspectives on ethnic minority issues.”

Paul Lincoln
Chief Executive
National Heart Forum

“ETHNOS' understanding of socially excluded groups has provided the Agency with a solid knowledge base on the attitudes, preferences, barriers and needs of BME, disabled and young people in relation to the countryside and green outdoor spaces. They have contributed very positively to our Diversity Review and helped improve the capacity of practitioners to attract and work with a more diverse profile of visitors.”

Jacqui Stearn
Diversity Review Programme Manager
Countryside Agency

REACH is a project, led jointly by the Black community and Government, designed to raise the aspirations and achievements of Black boys and young Black men against a background of educational under-achievement, low employment and over-representation in the Criminal Justice System. REACH was designed by a team of 25 experts drawn from a variety of fields, including the voluntary and community sector, education, local authorities, academia and law enforcement. These experts recommended, among other initiatives, the introduction of a structured national role model programme for Black boys and young Black men, to offset negative media portrayals of Black boys and young Black men and help drive up aspirations and achievements.

ETHNOS was commissioned by Communities and Local Government to evaluate the REACH National Role Model Programme. The evaluation aimed to identify:

• how the programme has been implemented
• what have been the experiences of the main programme stakeholders
• whether role modelling works, in what ways and with whom
• what are the success factors and what can be improved

A very comprehensive evaluation protocol was devised to ensure that the perspectives of all stakeholders – e.g. members of the REACH working group, central government staff, programme managers, role models, young Black people involved in the selection of the REACH role models, organisations facilitating role modelling events, audiences - would be taken into account. In addition, 18 role modelling events were selected for in-depth analysis of short-term and long-term impact.

The evaluation reports on a range of programme implementation issues, with a view to learning lessons for future role modelling programmes. Despite some shortcomings, the evaluation found that most REACH role modelling events worked: they had a strong, positive and often lasting impact on Black boys and young Black men, especially in relation to:

• self-esteem, self-confidence, self-efficacy
• positive identity as Black boys and young Black men, and ability to challenge stereotypes of
Black men
• appreciation of the need to treat oneself and others with respect
• appreciation of the value of knowledge/education/hard work
• appreciation of the need for parental engagement (among fathers)
• broadening of career options envisaged by and deemed possible for Black men
• desire to act as role models and to contribute to the Black community
• ability to enact the specific success strategies promoted by the role models
• willingness to seek advice and support
• some commitment to promote REACH among family, friends and relevant parties
• commitment to reject crime (among prisoners)

Lessons from the evaluation are relevant to anyone seeking to develop a role modelling programme or to find out how best to motivate Black boys to achieve their potential.

LONDON BOROUGH OF WALTHAM FOREST

Young people and disengagement: Young people in the Sikh community

As part of its local Community Cohesion Strategy (2008-2011), the London Borough of Waltham Forest is seeking to promote community cohesion and to tackle extremism within all its local communities. They commissioned ETHNOS to:

• identify whether young Sikhs perceive their borough to be cohesive and what are the
drivers for their perceptions
• determine whether low perceived cohesion could lead to support for extremist ideologies
• identify key organisations to leverage to access the local Sikh community
• recommend strategies to addresses any grievances identified

ETHNOS carried out:

• a rapid review on Sikhism and the Sikh community in Britain
• eight interviews with key statutory, community and faith stakeholders in Waltham Forest
• six focus groups with young Sikh and other residents in Waltham Forest
• observations at community events and in local Sikh organisations

The report provides a demographic, economic and social-psychological profile of the Sikh community in Waltham Forest. It reports on how Sikh identity is lived by young people and on the resources which are mobilised to establish and defend a Sikh identity. The report shows that there is very little support at all for extremist ideologies among Sikhs in Waltham Forest. However, it also identifies three factors that undermine community cohesion:

• perceived injustice against Sikhs in the aftermath of 9/11 and 7/7 and concern that resources are “unfairly” diverted towards the Muslim
community
• experiences of direct discrimination
• the local penetration of the international neo-Khalistani movement

ETHNOS makes a number of recommendations to build the council’s capacity to engage with young Sikhs, via both religious and secular (community and statutory) organisations.

GREATER LONDON AUTHORITY

Consultation on the Mayor's Children Strategy

The Mayor of London produced a Children’s Strategy to promote the best interests of the capital’s children and to give them a voice on the issues of relevance to them. A major consultation exercise was organised to assess children’s views about the Draft Strategy. As part of the consultation, ETHNOS consulted with “hard-to-reach” children: refugee and asylum-seeking children, homeless children and children at risk of offending.

We carried out the research with children and young people aged between 10 and 17 years. Our first task was to transfer the draft Strategy into something that was meaningful for children, to which they could relate and on which they could comment. The children were asked to discuss, in their own words and in relation to their own experiences, issues related to the nine strategic areas identified in the Draft Children’s Strategy. They also completed a simple and fun questionnaire covering the main issues addressed in the Strategy. Throughout the project, we ensured that the tasks were meaningful for the children, manageable for their age, and that the atmosphere was friendly and open. Only then could we elicit valid and rich information. Key recommendations were made and the final Strategy was revised in light of the findings.

COUNTRYSIDE AGENCY

Perceptions and usage of the countryside amongst minority ethnic people, disabled people and young people

DEFRA tasked the Countryside Agency with carrying out a comprehensive Diversity Review to find out why people from ethnic minority backgrounds, young people, older people, disabled people, people on low income and women make little use of the countryside. The Diversity Review generated a detailed Action Plan to overcome the current under-representation of these groups amongst users of the countryside. As part of a broad programme of research, ETHNOS were contracted to find out:

• how different groups of under-represented users conceive of the countryside
• how this impacts on their use of the countryside
• what needs to be done to diversify use of the countryside

ETHNOS carried out an extensive literature review on these issues. We also worked closely with nearly 300 people from ethnic minority backgrounds (Black Caribbeans, Indians and Pakistanis), disabled people (wheelchair users, blind/visually impaired people and people with mental health problems), and young people (aged between 14 and 20) to find out about their perceptions, usage and needs in relation to the countryside.

Using a combination of individual interviews, focus group discussions and escorted visits with families to the countryside, we identified similarities and differences in the groups’ representations of the countryside, in their perceptions of the benefits of countryside use, in the main barriers preventing access and in the provisions and services people want in order to enjoy the countryside. Strategic recommendations to diversify use of the countryside were made, based on the findings. ETHNOS also presented the research at regional road shows for countryside practitioners.

Full research report

EAST POTENTIAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

The barriers to employment faced by young Black men

East Potential is a charity that provides housing and support services to young people who are homeless or in housing need in the east end of London. In order to ensure that their provision offers the best possible support for young Black men, they commissioned ETHNOS to identify the barriers to employment faced by young Black men and to evaluate the quality of their accommodation, advice, training and support for this client group. The project combined a literature review, focus groups and a survey with both employed and unemployed young Black Caribbean and African young men housed by East Potential.

NATIONAL HEART FORUM

Ethnic minority young people and health

The National Heart Forum – an alliance of some 45 national organisations concerned with the prevention of coronary heart disease - commissioned ETHNOS to profile young ethnic minority people in England, to summarise existing research on their health status and needs, to discuss the merits of competing explanations for the reported inequalities in health, and to make recommendations to improve the health of young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Our report was published in a book entitled: “A lifecourse approach to coronary heart disease prevention: Scientific and policy review."

Article

DEPARTMENT FOR CHILDREN, SCHOOLS AND FAMILIES

Drivers and challenges in raising the achievement of pupils from Bangladeshi, Somali and Turkish backgrounds

ETHNOS, in partnership with GFK/NOP, the Institute of Education and the University of Warwick, was involved in a national research aimed at identifying the factors the drive educational achievement in pupils from Bangladeshi, Somali and Turkish backgrounds. Evidence showed that attainment rates among Bangladeshi pupils have significantly improved over recent years, while Turkish and Somali pupils continue to perform below the national average. More specifically, the research examined:

• the range of support available specifically for Bangladeshi, Turkish and Somali groups, in primary and secondary schools, and how these impact on
pupil attainment and experience of school;
• the attitudes and aspirations of pupils within these communities, focusing on how they differ, and on the pupils' experiences of school;
• the level of support parents or others in the household/community provide for their children's learning at school and at home, and how this
differs between communities;
• the challenges faced by pupils and their families in the three communities which may influence achievement.

The research had five main strands:

• analysis of pupil data from the National Pupil Database and the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC)
• analysis of Longitudinal Study of Young People in England data
• survey of 284 Heads of Inclusion/Ethnic Minority Achievement at primary and secondary schools with higher than average concentrations of
pupils from Bangladeshi, Somali and Turkish/Kurdish backgrounds
• qualitative research with teachers, pupils and local authorities
• qualitative research with parents/carers

The research identified the main drivers behind the comparative success of Bangladeshi pupils and identified good practice and lessons of relevance to the Turkish and Somali communities.

Full research report