The Bressay Profile has been published

The profile is part of a suite of profiles for the seven localities in Shetland, alongside profiles for the islands with small populations which were published earlier this year. It contains data on population, jobs, volunteering, and survey data from residents on how they feel about life in Bressay. The Profile is available to view here: Bressay Profile.

The locality profiles provide information at a local level. They contain data on demographics, economy, education, environment, health and housing. The island profiles provide information on the five outer islands with permanent residents. The information for these often comes from the communities themselves due to the difficulties in extracting data for small populations. Both locality and island profiles can be used to inform decision making and to seek external funding to support community development.

Bressay falls under the locality of ‘Lerwick and Bressay’, therefore the Bressay Profile has been developed in recognition that it has its own unique needs as an island, and that information specific to Bressay is not fully captured in the Lerwick and Bressay profile. Due to the way data is published, Lerwick and Bressay often cannot be separated. Overall, the living experiences for those who live in Bressay and Lerwick are very different, meaning any combined data will not give an accurate picture of the experiences of those in Bressay.

The Bressay Community Council and Bressay Development Limited (BDL), Partnership Officers and the Community Involvement and Development Officer for Bressay looked at the sort of information that might be important to include, to represent what everyday life on Bressay was like. They began by creating a survey to circulate to residents. Bressay Development Limited provided much of the community data, and Partnership Officers accessed relevant national open source data and designed the profile.

Once a draft profile was created, a meeting was held in Bressay with the Community Council and BDL to come together and review the profile and its data. This allowed people to see how their area was represented and provide feedback. Once the profile was agreed by both community groups, it was published and can be found on the Shetland Partnership website.