Donaghadee Community Profile
Donaghadee is a coastal town of some 7,500 inhabitants located on the east coast of Northern Ireland The Donaghadee Community Development Association is a recognised charity formed in 2011 with the aim of making the town a better place in which to live, work or visit. Activities centre on organising festivals, completing environmental works, well-being events and lobbying central and local government for improvements. It has no employees and all activities are completed by volunteers. Annual expenditure is of the order of £75,000 derived mainly from grants and some local fundraising
The request
DCDA wanted a comprehensive, objective and up to date assessment of the town, to help focus its priorities for development, and to provide evidence to support funding applications.
The approach
The approach was to seek data sources covering a broad range of indicators, that were in the public domain, reasonably recent, and sufficiently geographically detailed to be able to compare the town against others. The project coincided with the release of data from the 2021 Census, so this was an important source, but data was also acquired from other official statistics and various online sources. These were compared against an agreed list of other small towns in Northern Ireland, and against NI as a whole and the district of Ards & North Down. For several measures it was also possible to map the distribution of characteristics within the town.
Topics covered included population, households, housing, health, religion, education, employment, crime, transport, infrastructure, tourism and culture, among others.
The result
The output was a 35-page report, consisting of an executive summary and a set of thematic sections covering the main findings, illustrated with charts and maps. With so much data, it was decided to focus primarily on those aspects where Donaghadee was noticeably different from the comparison towns. This kept the report to a manageable length. The report went through several iterations, checking with DCDA that it met its needs, and refining some of the conclusions with the benefit of detailed local knowledge.
It was recognised by both parties that much more could have been done with the data, and that there are other approaches that the report might have taken. Some of the data is regularly updated, and future development and funding opportunities might require different analyses or presentation. The volunteer has agreed to respond to any requests for further analysis in order to maximise the value of this work to DCDA in the future. He has also been invited to present and discuss the report with a broader group of interested parties in Donaghadee.
Impact and benefits
DCDA is delighted with the finished report which has highlighted several aspects of the town that it can use to identify priorities for the future and, crucially, provide the hard evidence needed when pressing for improvements to the town’s facilities and infrastructure. Key findings include the rate of growth of the town, the high age profile and the incidence of single occupancy households. This data will be used to reinforce the bid for funding to provide a Men’s Shed facility where plants for the town’s In Bloom programme can be grown. On a wider front the data will be used to revise and update the Donaghadee Town Masterplan which is being prepared by the Council, working closely with the Association.
Charity contact: John Caldwell, Honorary Secretary
S4S Volunteer: Andrew Gustar