BU Research Blog

It is All About Fusion!

Bournemouth University – Community Mapping

A Huge Contribution Towards BU 2025 Strategy, SIAs & UN SDGs (1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 10 – 11 – 13- 17)

The Fusion concept has been guiding and providing us with a sound framework by fusing research, education and professional practice to produce research and education with impact. I am implementing a project that demonstrates how our students could benefit from this fusion concept. This project provides our students (MSc Marketing Management and MSc Marketing Management, digital) with a unique opportunity to learn and at the same time, become active contributors to their community and contribute to the above UN SDGs.

This is not the first time that I collaborate with Jaki King, founder of If Everyone Cares (a community interest company, with its Community Pledge and aDoddle.org which maps more than a 1000 charities). This year the collaboration takes a step further. Thanks to the support of Professor Marcjanna Augustyn, our students will be able to work on the Bournemouth Community Map (BCM)- a brand funded by the Department of Marketing, Strategy and Innovation-  design and implement a marketing communications plan for this brand.

The BCM will provide a resource which will significantly enhance and facilitate the relationship between BU and charities. It creates a virtual space for BU academics and students and more than a 1000 charities, where they can come together and share their needs for collaboration for research and teaching to achieve different objectives e.g. learning, inspiring, sharing, supporting the community, contributing to the society. Our PG students are pioneering this project and there have been some initial conversations regarding connections with other universities about this project in the future.

The BCM will be launched in March 2020 by the students as part of their seminars and ALAs sessions activities designed for the Marketing Communications and Brand Management unit. They will design and implement a marketing communications plan to the brand BCM. They will be in touch with you, so, could you please support them?

The students will be assessed based on an individual assignment where they give account on what they have learned, how they engaged with marketing communications theory and other materials to make their decisions, their appreciation of what went wrong or wright, how they felt during all the process… and not on the success of the campaign.

This teaching delivery and assessment method is in line with BU 2025 core themes and the SIAs. This project aims to build an inclusive community where BU plays a significant role via this partnership with If Everyone Cares (aDoddle). It creates opportunities for collaboration on issues challenging the community. Therefore, BU is also contributing to the UN agenda 2030.

BCM: Forging Stronger Links & Facilitating Resilience within Our Community

Across the UK there are over 150,000 registered charities that provide critical support for those in crisis or need. This figure does not include many more locally run community projects and groups who also provide essential services, some of whom do not have an active web presence.

A sad fact is that even though the world has never been more connected by technology, no one has brought these vital organisations together in one place so they can be searched for based on location and need. Yet at the same time you can go to Google Maps, type in a town or city and within a fraction of a second have a list of hotels & restaurants allowing you to make an informed decision as to which one best meets your requirements.

A few years ago, Kaouther Kooli, a Principal Academic in marketing at BU, connected with If Everyone Cares CIC (IEC) after they were named on the UK’s Digital Leaders 100 list for aDoddle’s potential social impact. The small team of dedicated volunteers is working on creating an online map which aims to bring these vital community resources together in one place so they can be found with a few clicks of a button. (aDoddle.org)

IEC has been previously used as a live case study to deliver and assess learning for the Marketing Communications unit (MSc Marketing Management). The students worked on designing a marketing communications plan for IEC. The method proved to be engaging and motivating and supporting students’ learning. In addition, students ideas were used and acknowledged by IEC.

This year BU students, Jaki (IEC) myself, Kaouther,  are taking this connection one step further through a partnership to create and launch the ‘Bournemouth Community Map’. Developing a resource that will not only help to connect BU with local and national charities but also be the first step towards creating a resource for the benefit of the community as a whole.

The Bournemouth Community Map will be linked to the UK wide Map – aDoddle.org. When charities or local community groups are added to/updated on BCM they will also be added to/updated on aDoddle and vice-versa. Ensuring a flow of up-to-date & easily accessible information.

BCM will create significant Benefits/Opportunities for BU and charities:

• Ability for faculty, academics & students to link with charities for research projects
• Ability for charities to post research opportunities
• Opportunities for faculty to set course work around real needs for charities within community – having real impact
• Ability for charities to post volunteer needs for potential matching with students
• Opportunities for students to locate charities to volunteer for while attending BU

Benefits For the whole community include:

• Connecting people who need help with those who provide it
• Sign-posting those who want to help (volunteer) to projects that need support
• Help those who are experiencing isolation to find local groups to connect with others
• Enable and encourage existing projects to connect, collaborate, avoid duplication, discover where there are gaps in support. Helping them to help more people – more effectively
• Encourage businesses to support projects within their locality – forging stronger community links
• And all of this will be FREE to use – 24/7/365.

More about aDoddle.org and Area Specific Community Maps:

The team at IEC’s original goal was to create a resource to help people, who were facing crisis, to find the support that was available to them locally. After putting the idea of creating a map of charities into the global Sir Richard Branson & Virgin Unite Challenge to ‘Screw Business As Usual’, and being voted 3^rd by the public, the feedback solidified their belief that it was genuinely needed and a practical solution.

Extensive conversational research followed. From connecting with organisations who had tried community mapping and failed, to speaking with thousands of people from all walks of life, talking to charities of all sizes, and so much more.

It soon became apparent that the map would help to connect and have benefit for other areas within the community as well.

Every element has been developed from feedback. It has been built from the ground up, with ease of use and a ‘lean’ framework at its core.

• Charities & organisations add their own profiles – telling the ‘story’ of who they help, how they help, the difference they make and the help they need.
• There is a unique ‘Traffic Light’ system that shows the ‘freshness’ of profiles. If a pin-point is green then it has been updated in the last 6 months, amber 6-12 months and red over 12 months.
• Profiles are all set up in the same format & layout, are like ‘mini websites’ and can be branded with colours and logos. This means that information can be easily found.
• Organisations can use their profile as their online web presence.
• Addresses can be set to hidden, just showing the organisation is in an area – but not the specific address (handy for some organisations such as Women’s Aid)

BU, as a partner organisation, is opening the doors to new elements of research and development. Already the ideas of creating two new pages on area specific community maps are being explored and will be piloted on the BCM.

The first, to share opportunities for research between BU academics/students and charities and also to share requests for research directly from charities with the hope of matching them with BU students.

The second based on volunteering opportunities: Having a section where students can post the type of volunteering opportunity that they are looking for and the second where local charities can share roles for which they are seeking volunteers.

My students will be in touch to promote the BCM. Please support them.

I would like to thank Professor Marcjanna Augustyn, Head of the Marketing, Strategy and Innovation Department, and Dr Ian Jones, Head of External Engagement for their support.

Please email me on kkooli@bournemouth.ac.uk if you need further information about this project.

Dr Kaouther Kooli

Principal Academic in Marketing

Faculty of Management

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