Guernsey Peace Project - Survey Findings

Survey Findings

Many people in Guernsey feel lonely or lack a sense of belonging. This was one of the results from the short survey on connection and belonging in Guernsey. The survey was part of the “Peace Education and Action for Impact” programme. The 5 participants on the Guernsey Team undertaking the world class programme were sponsored by the Rotary Club of Guernsey.

44% of those who completed the survey felt lonely often or most of the time.

17.3% felt their voice is never or hardly ever heard

Thanks so much to everyone who got involved with our survey. We have gathered some amazing data that will help bring great positive change to various groups and organizations moving forward.

We had gathered our survey online and at seafront Sunday to look into connection and belonging on the Island as well as how easily people are able to access services and support to help them in those areas. Here’s just a few of the things we gathered from the survey.

627 completed our survey.

Time was the largest barrier to accessing support or taking part in activities.

Comparison to 2018 wellbeing survey

Quoting from our report here are some comparisons between what we discovered and the 2018 wellness survey.

“When compared to the Guernsey and Alderney Wellbeing Survey 2018 the results show that not much has changed for young people. Under 16s and 16-24 year olds were the most likely to respond ‘often/always’ to the question ‘how often do you feel lonely and/or lack a sense of belonging?’, with less than 20% of these same age groups responding ‘hardly ever’ or ‘never’. In contrast, 70% of 65-74 year olds and 80% of people aged 75+ responded ‘hardly ever’ or ‘never’, and 5% or less of these same age groups replied ‘often/always’.

The survey also found that 33% of the respondents from the 16-24 age group did not select ‘spending time with friends’ to the question ‘what makes you feel connected’, and 42% did not select ‘spending time with family’ on the same question. Those aged under 24 were the most likely to select ‘deal with it myself’ to the question ‘If you were feeling lonely and in need of support, what would you likely do?’, and the least likely to respond ‘talk to someone I trust / feel comfortable with’. Finally, those aged 16-24 were the most likely to select ‘no’ when asked both ‘do you know where to find information about activities and/or support in Guernsey?’ and ‘have you heard of the Health Connections Directory?’. “

Our conclusions and suggestions

From our findings we have seen a number of changes and additions that could help people with relevant issues.

Firstly a central source of activities, support and events as a one stop shop would help create a comprehensive place for people to find and promote support. Another idea that could better support people could be a service or app that allows people to match together to try activities similar in design to dating aps, but without a romantic focus, and a focus on group gatherings.

For a full look at our findings please click HERE.

Why connection and belonging?

The Guernsey Team were participating in the Peace Education and Action for Impact Programme run by World BEYOND War in collaboration with the Rotary Action Group for Peace. The participants learned together with teams from 6 other countries across the world, each of which designed and implemented peace projects relevant to the needs in their communities.

The Guernsey project team members all related in particular to the ‘peaceful ways of being with self’ module, which focused on personal peace. They believed this was relevant in the Guernsey context and chose to base their project on this topic. The team was able to narrow down its focus to connection and belonging, based on secondary research and first-hand experience, as they identified a gap between the current state and desired state of these needs for people on the island.