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Executive Summary Islington's Faith Based Organisations
There are 118 active Faith Based Organisations (FBOs) in the London
Borough of Islington and this survey achieved a 66% response rate,
which is more than double the response rate from groups in Islington
to the Greater London Enterprise survey conducted in 2001.
Brief
overview of Islington Faith Statistics
Three quarters of the Islington population define themselves by
a religious faith, of which 61% define themselves as Christian and
9% as Muslim (almost treble the national average). The identification
with a religion in Islington is strongest amongst the Asian and
Black/Black British communities amongst whom over 90% have a religious
faith. Whilst 80% of Islington's Christian community identify themselves
as being from a white ethnic group. There is no one majority ethnic
group amongst the Muslim community.
Details
of Worshippers Attending Islington Faith Based Organisations
This survey has established that 33,171 people worship at FBOs in
the Borough once a month, which is equivalent to 19% of the population.
23,000 of these worshippers (69%) are residents of the Borough;
the remainder coming into the Borough specifically to attend the
place of worship. Impressively, 72% of FBOs have had increased numbers
of worshippers over the 12 months prior to the study. Only 2% have
had a decrease. The survey has found that Pentecostal, Evangelical,
Independent and Methodist Churches identified the largest number
of BME worshippers amongst their congregations of the different
Christian denominations. Examining the gender breakdown of Islingtonís
worshippers, Christian and Sikh FBO congregations are predominantly
female, whilst Muslim and Buddhist congregations are predominantly
male.
Social
Projects delivered by Islington's FBOs
289 social projects are run by the Boroughs FBOs every year. This
is equivalent to an average of 2.5 projects run by each FBO. The
delivery of these projects is only possible because of the commitment
of 536 volunteers and a limited number of paid staff: 68 full time
staff and 52 part-time staff. The survey has established that education
projects are the most common type of social project, making up 11%
of all projects carried out by FBOs in the Borough. The types of
project delivered are similar across all ethnic groups. Whilst the
most common target groups for FBO-led social projects are young
people and the elderly.
Funding
Social Projects
This research has revealed that one-third of Christian and Buddhist
groups have applied for public sector funding for their social projects,
whilst over two-thirds of Muslim groups have done so. It is important
to highlight that 80% of FBOs who have ever applied for public sector
funding have had at least one of their social projects approved
for funding. Interestingly, the Church of England, Quaker, Methodist
and United Reform Church denominations are those most likely to
apply for funding from among the Christian community. Expressed
in monetary terms, approximately £1,650,000 has been awarded
to Islington FBOs in grants for services provided (90% of which
went to the handful of large organisations, 10% of which went to
17 separate projects).
Social
Projects Islington's Faith Based Organisations Would Like to Run
52% of FBOs stated that there were additional social projects they
would like to run but that they faced barriers to set them up. Sikh,
Muslim and Buddhist groups identified funding as being the key problem.
Christian groups agreed but also identified lack of appropriate
facilities and lack of volunteers as significant problems. Lack
of buildings to lease/purchase, inadequate existing buildings, lack
of parking space and lack of funding are key issues why FBOs cannot
do as much to provide opportunity to develop social projects as
they would like to do. Whilst most Christian denominations own their
own premises, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Independent Churches
as well as Muslim and Sikh groups generally do not own their own
premises.
Partnership
Structure of FBOs in the Delivery of Social Projects
The survey has revealed the following:
74% of FBOs work in partnership on projects with FBOs of the same
faith.
27%
of FBOs have been involved in discussions and/or projects with FBOs
of other religions. 50% of Muslim groups have been involved in such
activities.
65%
of FBOs work in partnership with various 'non-religious' organisations.
Support
Required by Islington's Faith Based Organisations
FBOs responding to this survey identified that the main thing that
public authorities could do to support them was to provide further
funding for their projects (38%). 28% of respondents also referred
to what may be grouped as 'capacity building' support as the thing
they would like support with from the Council.
Faith
Based Organisations' Awareness of Initiatives in Islington
52% of FBOs were aware of the Islington Faith Forum before the survey
was carried out. When questioned about the Community Empowerment
Network and Islington Strategic Partnership, only 30% and 40%, respectively,
of FBOs stated that they were aware of the existence of these initiatives.
These findings demonstrate the need to promote the aforementioned
programmes to Islington's FBOs to ensure that they can 'tap' into
the resources for which they are eligible, and also to guarantee
that the voices of FBOs are clearly heard. |
