Social Audit Cookbook to help groups with research
This is a tool designed to help groups prepare research and surveys to evaluate or audit activities and attitudes in their local communities.
The Social Audit Cookbook is a terrific guide for groups wanting to produce statistical data to back up their advocacy.
Written by Eva Cox, the long-time advocate from the Womens Electoral Lobby and the University of Technology Sydney,
The Social Audit Cookbook is designed for community activists at all levels.
The cookbook acknowledges that for a long time, advocates have been using statistics and snapshot research findings as social audits to support their claims for communities in trouble but that now there is also a need to also provide measures of social capital and how well communities work.
It provides guidelines for research projects that measure everything from how people feel about a local park to a more in-depth social audit to see how new welfare policies are affecting the lives of your target groups or how well community members are developing the ability to work together.
As well as introducing the subject of social auditing, The Social Audit Cookbook also covers:
- Designing the audits taking in data collection, measurement methods and checklist
- Collecting new data: Equipment and ingredients taking in equipment, group exercises and sample questions for surveys
- Traditional social indicators * Collating and analysing the research material taking in dealing with questionnaires and focus groups and group analysis
- Reporting results and drawing conclusions from social audits
- Basic research - for experts and novices looking at the issue of questions, avoiding bias and other consideration