21st July 2014
The aim of the stakeholder co-production workshop event was to begin development of project proposals to be funded by Cumbria Community Foundation through the new NMP Community Fund. It was the start of a process to support effective partnership working and maximisation of resources.
During the workshop, we held a session to identify priority need in West Cumbria and any current gaps in funding. The photos below are from this session.
We also welcomed input around measuring outcomes/impact as we are implementing a new outcome monitoring framework. We held a session on how organisations currently measure success. We discussed what tools are used and how these tell us if what we are doing is working.
How we measure success
1. Case studies – show activity/impact & development
2. Use baseline & post project assessment
3. Where am I now – how did this impact
4. Wheels – initial assessment / achievements/attainment/goal setting/show progress
5. Track journeys across workshops
6. Show progress into learning/work
7. Understanding of opportunities & how access them
8. Value in systematic approach to evaluating impact – shared learning via networks such as “Youthwork Copeland”
9. Social Value – Housing & Communities Trust – Wellbeing Indicators
10. Personal outcomes & progress made against indicators
11. BLF – agreed outcomes & outputs
12. Business Plan – associated monthly reviews
13. Feeding into annual report against plans
14. Stories – evidence of project funding being recycled locally and grow local economy
15. Activity sheet – self assessed status (related to confidence etc) over time
16. Triangulation – assessment by young person/parent/school of progress over time
17. Growth in emotional intelligence – how does my behaviour impact on others?
18. Reflective processes – maximise benefit to beneficiary
19. Statements/comments from external observers not just direct beneficiaries
20. Pre-post recording – base line / distance travelled
21. Must be relevant to need being met
22. Personalised goals & aims for individual one to ones
Question
1. Is anyone measuring growth in support/social networking beyond immediate peer group e.g. Facebook etc.?
2. Expanded role for young evaluators?
3. Is there a role for looking at data from social media to explore what it might be telling us
Barriers to measuring success
1. Story telling – labour intensive
2. Capturing benefits derived from outside project funding
3. Self-selecting samples based on peoples willingness to have data/activity recorded
4. Forums for consideration of consistency e.g. glossary of terms
5. Equal opportunities – personal & intrusive questions
6. Putting words into beneficiaries mouths & limiting questionnaires
7. Too much evaluation – finding the right balance is essential
8. Capacity of staff
9. Knowledge on how to measure success – Training needs so everyone in organisation values importance of measuring success
10. Resources (time / staff / cost)
11. Keeping info up to date
12. Perceptions