Tag Archive for: evaluation

Successful Client: The £1.6 million Climate FORTH project gets the go ahead

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Earlier this year, The Evaluator worked with Climate FORTH (Furthering Our Resilience Through Heritage) on their application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, where we developed an evaluation framework for the whole project. They have just announced they were successful. That’s always a lovely day, sharing in the success of our clients.
The details are below:
A new £1.6million project in the Inner Forth has been granted just over £1million by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to boost the area’s climate resilience through the promotion and enhancement of local heritage.
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Climate FORTH is the latest project from Inner Forth Futures, a landscape-scale partnership which has been operating across the coastal areas of Clackmannanshire, Stirling, Falkirk and Fife since 2012. Since the partnership’s inception, it has delivered both the Inner Forth Landscape Initiative (IFLI) and Wanderings and Windings projects, enhancing and celebrating the local area’s heritage while improving access through a series of waymarked walking and cycling trails.

The new Climate FORTH project will build on these successes by piloting methods of increasing resilience to climate and other changes in the local area’s natural and built heritage, and in its most at-risk communities.

The River Forth at Kinneil Lagoons_Falkirk_Chloe Wells_RSPB.jpg
The project will soon begin work on the delivery of several new initiatives, including green skill training for young people and community groups, enhancement of sustainable travel options around the local area, and capital works at four locations across the project area. The works will improve the climate resilience of greenspaces at Glendevon Drive in Stirling and Rannoch Park in Falkirk, as well as an important community building, Cochrane Hall in Alva, Clackmannanshire and the Gardener’s Cottage ruin at Valleyfield Estate in Fife.
One of the first activities to get underway will be a rebranding of sections of the National Cycle Network which pass through the Inner Forth. Supported by Sustrans, this work will encourage more people to make use of the network and help establish the landscape as a destination for sustainable tourism.
A key aim of Climate FORTH is to pilot new techniques that can be shared with other initiatives and policymakers to inspire further action. The pioneering work of the project will be closely monitored so the knowledge obtained can support Scotland’s aim of achieving net zero emissions by 2045 and help communities move towards a just transition.
Four communities in particular have been identified as being key to the project’s goals, with members playing an active role in decisions involving their local area through the co-design of local resilience plans. They are Hawkhill in Clackmannanshire, Fallin in Stirling, Bainsford & Langlees in Falkirk and Kincardine in Fife.
Climate FORTH Project Manager, Kate Fuller, said, “We’re delighted to have been awarded this Heritage Fund support that will allow us to show how the diverse natural and cultural assets of the Inner Forth can be adapted to tackle the threats of climate change. We’ve seen through our previous work just how special this part of Scotland is. Thanks to National Lottery players, Climate FORTH will enable us to re-invigorate our work with the amazing communities that live here and support them to lead by example as Scotland moves towards achieving net-zero.”
Dave Beaumont, Operations Director for RSPB Scotland said, “We are in a nature and climate emergency and the only way we can meet this challenge is by facing it together. Estuaries such as the Forth are where we are seeing impacts from climate change right now – as sea levels rise, storm intensities increase and rivers flowing into our seas are carrying floodwaters much more frequently. The communities and the incredible wildlife found in and around our estuaries are more fragile than ever and this project will continue our efforts to make them more resilient to the changes ahead.”
Cosmo Blake, Network Engagement Manager for Sustrans Scotland, said, “We are delighted to work with Inner Forth Futures to create a new brand identity and better signage along sections of The National Cycle Network. As well as creating a new brand identity, we are also developing eight new day trips with maps, directional signage and additional bike parking and maintenance stations at local heritage sites and transport hubs. We hope this will encourage more people to walk, wheel and cycle and make sustainable choices when visiting the Inner Forth.”
Heather Macnaughton, Strategic Partnerships Manager at Historic Environment Scotland said, “This funding will build on the exciting work our partnership has already undertaken in the area to help protect this heritage rich estuary from the impact of climate change. Working with the local community, Climate FORTH will shine a light on the area’s natural and built heritage and the important part it can play in improving climate resilience and biodiversity. By working closely with our partners and communities, Historic Environment Scotland looks forward to developing solutions for future resilience and moving together towards a just transition.”
Caroline Clark, Director for Scotland, The National Lottery Heritage Fund said, “This is such an important project for our times – Climate FORTH will enable communities to take the lead in developing their own local responses to the challenges of climate change and Net Zero. What makes this project even more significant is that it will then create templates that can be adapted for use by other communities across Scotland and beyond.”
Inner Forth Futures is a partnership between RSPB Scotland, Clackmannanshire Council, Falkirk Council, Fife Council, Green Action Trust, Historic Environment Scotland, NatureScot, Stirling Council and Sustrans. Climate FORTH is partly funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with additional funding from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, the Crown Estate, IFF members and the Scottish Government through Sustrans Scotland’s Network Engagement Programme. The project will be running from August 2023 – July 2026.
For more information, visit innerforthlandscape.co.uk.

Learning about data; Working with qualitative data

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From time to time, we share a director’s blog post, where we share some learning about how to use your data (information) better. This is a post all about how to use qualitative data, that’s the information that is made up of words rather than numbers.

The chances are that your organisation already has a bank of this data but it may not be well organised and easily accessible. Below is a list of some of the many ways you might have collected qualitative data, possibly without realising it.

How credible is your qualitative data?

There is a distinction between primary and secondary data and it’s important to understand what you have collected as the credibility differs between the two.  Primary data is more credible and robust.  It is the data that people told you or have written themselves.  Secondary data is that which is overheard in discussion or something that someone has heard and told you about.

To check the credibility of your secondary data, you can apply the Rule of 3. If you’ve heard it from 3 different places or if it’s come from 3 different people independently then it can be considered as credible and representative of a thought or opinion.

How to make the qualitative data more usable? 

We use word or phrase frequency analysis to evaluate our qualitative data to look for patterns of frequency of words to identify common themes.  This can be done online using free tools, like this one,  and they just count the words for you.  We often use the top 10 words or phrases.  You can also use the ratio of positive to negative words that are used or how far down the feedback the first negative word appears.  Using these methods helps to quantify data and make it more digestible and can be used in marketing or to track changes over time.

Mind maps can be useful to illustrate and develop on the themes identified. You can just draw these freehand to have a look at what the main themes are.

Word clouds provide a visual representation at a glance of the qualitative data and this is also a resource that can be sourced freely online.  The most common words appear the biggest in the cloud, making this data easier for the reader to understand visually.

Top tip – try to be objective, it can be hard to hear negative comments but it is how we improve and know what to fix, and they’re often in the minority compared to positive comments.

How to use and share qualitative data?

This data can be used in many different ways:

We also use qualitative data to create case studies which illustrate people’s journeys and direct engagement.  Case studies can be shared at board level and to show case your project’s work for marketing purposes.  Case studies appeal to a wide audience and are particularly useful in attracting funders as voices are recorded and reflected in these studies.

In our experience as evaluators, a case study from a project that we evaluated got shared with funders (Green Recovery) who sent it on to The National Lottery Heritage Fund who then sent it on to the Department of Work and Pensions.  Case studies are impactful in that they record real voices and can attract publicity and raise awareness of change.

 

If all of this sounds like too much work and you don’t have time, get in touch. We are happy to have a chat about your individual requirements and to see how we could help.

New Project: Urban Forest Accelerator

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The Evaluator is delighted to be starting a new project with National Trust, the Urban Forest Accelerator. We are excited to be working on measuring concepts of urban tree cover, tree equity, environmental justice and developing a new approach to measuring connections. Just as joined up canopies can be more that the sum of their parts, we believe our work relationships can also mirror this and aim to develop a new way to track this over time.

Along the way, we are lucky enough to get to work with inspirational people who want to transform and green our urban areas. We get to have discussions around who should decide what is best for urban trees, to look at tree cover metric developmental work and to use words like arboriculture career pathways and knowledge. Plus, we love trees!

The Urban Forest Accelerator is part of the Future Parks Accelerator and aims to address concepts including; partnership, urban forest capacity, sustainable finance, tree equity, community engagement and learning and scaling.

 

 

Recent Client Feedback

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At The Evaluator, we are committed to learning and improving our work over time. To make sure we achieve this we do evaluate ourselves and ask our clients to give us feedback. Here are some recent results.

 

And let’s end on a detailed client testimonial, from when The Evaluator worked in partnership with Simon Lees from Countryside Training Partnership to create an evaluation framework.

“Kirsty from The Evaluator and Simon from Countryside Training Partnership have challenged and encouraged the Climate FORTH project team and Board to think about monitoring and evaluation in a holistic way, right from this project development stage. The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework created will support our application to NLHF for delivery phase funding and show how we wish to go beyond monitoring outputs to considering the wider impact of National Lottery and other investment through our project. Communication was excellent throughout this contract and an extension was kindly accommodated when our timelines were delayed. The final report is clear, concise and well considered – spot on – we hope that we get an opportunity to enact it! The Evaluator & Countryside Training Partnership have proposed workable and proportional monitoring and evaluation methods to follow in a project delivery phase, identified suitable baseline data and provided friendly advice as we move through our project development phase. I would be pleased to recommend both parties to other organisations and partnerships looking for a personalised professional approach to this type of work.” Kate Fuller, Climate FORTH Project Manager, Inner Forth Futures.

New Client: National Trust

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Blue border and text saying new client national trust

The Evaluator is delighted to be working with a new client: National Trust.

The National Trust is Europe’s largest conservation charity, who look after nature, beauty and history for everyone to enjoy. They do it with the help of millions of members, volunteers, staff and donors. Without that, they couldn’t care for the miles of coastline, woodlands, countryside and the hundreds of historic buildings, gardens and precious collections they protect.

The Evaluator is delighted to be working with them to focus in on a people engagement evaluation, for their Green Recovery Challenge Funded Project ‘Uplands’. We will be getting to know the teams, carrying out analysis including an economic assessment of the supply chain for the project and sharing our learning through interactive workshops, which we are calling ‘Action Learning Sessions’.

 

Evaluation: To Have and To Heal

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When you hear Ancient Egypt for Modern Times, what do you think of? We thought of pyramids, and mummies and actually the whole of Egyptian Culture. We have loved evaluating this project around connecting modern people to ancient themes. This project aims to take the whole of that culture and make it relevant now. Of particular poignancy is how people have coped with tough times, and bereavement throughout the generations, which is timely given the last few years.

The Evaluator is delighted to be working the Manchester Museum team to understand the impact of their project, which includes an inter-generational project working across schools and care homes and an online project, of which more is below.

The official project description is:

To Have and to Heal is a unique new arts and wellbeing programme, supporting Covid recovery and resilience, which explores Manchester Museum’s World Class Egyptology collection and popular fascination with ancient Egypt. Sessions provide a safe space to share responses to and personal reflections of experiences of the pandemic.

Participating groups are invited to explore a chosen theme, through which discussion and reflections are shared in relation to the objects and the personal experiences they may connect with. Themes range from Magical Healing and Touch, to Loss and The Meaning of Art.

The interactive online programme includes real time engagement and Q & A with the Museum’s Curator of Egypt and Sudan, showcases high quality digital images of rarely seen objects from the collection, together with a behind the scenes virtual visit to the Museum’s storerooms.

​The online programme uses Manchester Museum’s collections as a catalyst for providing inspiration, and meaningful support to groups and organisations that have been heavily affected by the coronavirus pandemic, and is open to:

*​Third sector organisations offering vital support to people at risk of social isolation, with health conditions, or caring responsibilities.

*Schools and home-schoolers seeking inspirational new resources to support ‘catching-up’ on disrupted education

*Care homes and living independent living facilities

You can find out more about the project by clicking here. There are a number of short films which can be freely viewed to explore some of the project themes and objects from Ancient Egypt on the same link.

This project is funded by The Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund – delivered by the Museums Association.

Manchester Museum reopens soon at 10am on the 18th February and is opening with a free exhibition, Golden Mummies. You can find out more here. 

Thanks to all our 2022 clients!

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Images of all our client logos - there are a lot including national trust, wildlife trusts, in-situ, county councils and more

Huge thanks to all our 2022 clients, many of whom we will still be working with in 2023 and beyond.
The office is closing for Christmas on Thursday 22nd December and will reopen refreshed and renewed on Tuesday 3rd January.

Happy holidays to all.

Kirsty and all at The Evaluator

New Evaluation: Green Loop

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The Evaluator is delighted to be working with a new client, Fylde Borough Council on their arts and environment project; Green Loop. Based around Lytham St Anne’s, Green Loop as a name was inspired by the idea of creatively re-using the waste products which wash up on the shore.

There are three parts to this project including a new Eco-Market taking place at Fairhaven Lake, running with eco-friendly makers and crafts people and curated by Hopeful & Glorious. It has been really nice to work with Heather from Hopeful & Glorious as we worked together many years ago when both of us were working in Arts Development in Lancashire. Hopeful & Glorious curate many high quality events, and you can see more about them on their website here. 

Environmental artist Nerissa Cargill Thompson, is both creating an artist commission and working with a group of volunteers to take part in a 12 week programme to learn how to become an environmental maker with a creative business. That’s a journey of discovery for sure! We will enjoy writing about that as creative business is one of our particular interests.

Nerissa describes her work as:

Exploring change over time, not just eroding or decaying but new layers of growth, giving juxtapositions of structure and colour. Recent mixed media sculptures combine embellished textiles and cement cast in plastic packaging to highlight the legacy of disposables. Naturally inspired textures emphasise the way our waste becomes subsumed into the natural world around us.

Images of recent works can be seen on her website here. 

This project is run by Fylde Borough Council whose website is here, and the project is funded by Arts Council England.

New Client: VocalEyes

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The Evaluator is delighted to be working with a new client, VocalEyes. We are going to be working with VocalEyes to evaluate their Heritage Access 2022 project.

An ambitious project working with 50 volunteers, Heritage Access 2022, will support and train volunteer access researchers in a large-scale digital volunteering project that will benefit over 3,000 heritage sites in the UK and their visitors.

VocalEyes (great name!) helps bring arts and culture to life for blind and visually impaired people. They support arts and heritage venues through audio description services, training, consultancy and advice. You can see more about VocalEyes on their website here. 

New Client; Surrey County Council

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The Evaluator is delighted to be working with a new client, Surrey County Council. We’re working on an innovative placemaking project being delivered between a partnership lead jointly by Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and Surrey County Council to put the community at the heart of placemaking.

We are following and measuring the process and creating a capacity building report, a toolkit for others wanting to do placemaking in their locality and an animated case study to put the story of this work back into the mouths of the people taking part.