Goodlabs' evaluations featured on North East Evidence Hub

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We are delighted that two of our evaluations of the UKSPF Volunteering and Social Action Project have been featured on the North East Evidence Hub.

• 👉 Interim Evaluation

• 👉 Final Evaluation

The Evidence Hub, run by the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority, has published dedicated online pages for both the interim evaluation and the final evaluation of this work. Importantly, this is not just a case of uploading PDFs to a website. The Evidence Hub has created clear, accessible summaries of the reports, drawing out headline findings, case studies, conclusions, recommendations and wider learning.

For Goodlabs, this feels like a milestone moment. It is recognition of the value of careful, independent evaluation, but more importantly, it helps bring regional attention to the work of voluntary sector infrastructure organisations and the role they can play in supporting inclusion, participation and economic renewal.

The project itself was funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, via what was then the North East Combined Authority and is now the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority. It was delivered across Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland by a partnership of voluntary sector infrastructure organisations: VODA, Connected Voice, Volunteering Matters, Community Action Northumberland, CVA Blyth Valley, Northumberland CVA and The Key.

The real credit belongs to those organisations. It was their vision, commitment and practical delivery that produced the results. Working with a wide range of grassroots local organisations, they created volunteer opportunities, supported volunteers, delivered training, developed social action projects and built the trusted relationships that made the work possible.

Goodlabs’ role was to journey with the partners, acting independently as a critical friend to make sense of the evidence and offer practical recommendations about how to strengthen consistency and enhance impact. That involved listening carefully, analysing data, conducting focus groups and interviews, drawing together case studies, testing the findings and setting the work in a wider policy context.

At the heart of the research was an important question: what happens when people facing all sorts of personal barriers — isolation, economic inactivity, low confidence, distance from the labour market and more — are supported into volunteering and social action?

The final evaluation was titled From Inactivity and Isolation, to Involvement and Integration. That phrase captures the human journey at the centre of the work.

Volunteering is not a magic route into employment, and it should never be reduced to a narrow employability intervention. But the evidence from this project is important. Supported volunteering can help people move from inactivity and isolation towards involvement, confidence, connection and, in some cases, work.

Across the two phases of the project, the combined delivery figures were striking:
856 volunteer opportunities were supported, 769 volunteer roles were filled, 335 organisations received support and 534 people took part in training.

Combined results across the two phases of the project

Behind those numbers is the more human story captured in the title of the final report: people moving from inactivity and isolation towards involvement and integration. For some, that meant rebuilding confidence. For others, it meant reconnecting with people, developing routine, finding purpose, learning new skills or taking steps towards wider participation in community and economic life.

The final evaluation also landed at an important moment. As the UKSPF programme came to a close, the Combined Authority was setting out its strategic priorities through a new Corporate Plan. The evaluation found clear alignment between the Volunteering and Social Action Project and the region’s wider ambitions around inclusive growth, employment, skills and economic participation, including the New Deal for North East Workers.

In that context, the evaluation was not only a reflection on programme delivery. It was also a contribution to the region’s wider evidence base about the role and capability of the voluntary and community sector in creating inclusive pathways into participation and work.

This project shows why voluntary sector infrastructure matters. Local infrastructure organisations are often the connective tissue of the voluntary and community sector. They support smaller organisations, strengthen governance, improve volunteer systems, create opportunities and help people and communities take part.

That work can be quiet, relational and difficult to measure. But it is also foundational.

One of the key conclusions of the final evaluation was that the question is no longer simply whether supported volunteering can work. The evidence shows that it can. The bigger question is how fully it can be integrated into the region’s wider approach to employment, skills, health, community wellbeing and inclusive economic growth.

That is exactly the kind of bridge Goodlabs aims to build: between funders and delivery organisations, between evidence and practice, and between the voluntary sector and the policy conversations that affect its future.

Most importantly, this is a chance to recognise the organisations that made the project happen. Their work demonstrates the value of sustained investment in volunteering infrastructure and the powerful role that supported volunteering can play in helping people move from isolation towards confidence, connection and contribution.

Goodlabs is proud to have played a part in helping that learning reach a wider audience. Seeing the evaluations presented so thoughtfully by the North East Evidence Hub is a very proud moment — and a welcome recognition of the regional importance of the work led by the project partners and the wider voluntary sector infrastructure they represent.

Click to view on NE Evidence Hub

The Impact of Children’s Cancer North

The Children’s Cancer run is one of CCN’s many important fundraising initiatives, the 2026 run is on Sun 17th May at Newcastle Racecourse

Enhancing Impact with Children’s Cancer North

Over the past few months, Goodlabs has had the privilege of working with the brilliant team at Children’s Cancer North, a charity whose mission is simple and powerful: making life better for children with cancer. They walk alongside families facing one of the most difficult situations imaginable, offering support at a time when life can feel overwhelming.

Their work is compassionate, complex, and far-reaching — and they approached us because they wanted to strengthen the way they monitor, understand, and communicate their impact to the many people and organisations who support them.

Children’s Cancer North invests generously across three major areas of work:

1. Direct support for children and families, which includes financial, emotional, and practical help throughout treatment. This also covers the charity’s commitment to funding specialist workers on the childhood cancer wards at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, ensuring families are supported by skilled professionals every day.

2. Raising awareness and building a community of care, helping the public and key groups better understand childhood cancer and the challenges families face, whilst nurturing a supportive community around them.

3. Investing in groundbreaking research, including their long-standing and significant support for work at the Wolfson Childhood Cancer Research Centre in Newcastle, helping to drive forward understanding and treatment of childhood cancers.

Building a clearer picture of impact

Our task was to help the charity bring these strands together into a comprehensive theory of change — an end-to-end picture of how their work contributes to making life better for children with cancer.

We began by mapping the landscape: the pressures families face, the challenges clinical teams work under, and the broader issues in treatment, research, and public understanding. From there, we worked with the charity to articulate how their activities address these issues, and crucially, how their work leads to specific outcomes, such as:

• Relieving the financial, emotional, and practical pressures on families during treatment.

• Ensuring children benefit from the support of specialist ward staff who provide essential day-to-day help.

• Attracting talented young professionals to work in children’s cancer research here in the North East.

• Supporting research that moves us closer to better treatments and improved understanding of childhood cancers.

Practical tools for real-time learning

We also guided the process of developing a set of practical tools and feedback mechanisms for gathering clearer, more immediate insight. These allow families, ward-based workers, and research partners to reflect on what difference the charity’s support is making, and where further improvements can be made.

And this work doesn’t stop with internal learning. We’re also supporting the charity to refresh and restructure their annual impact reporting, helping them tell a clearer, richer, and more coherent story about the difference they make across their three core areas of work.

The aim is to build a cohesive impact methodology that supports learning and decision-making behind the scenes, as well as communicating achievements more effectively to supporters, partners, and the wider public.

Laying foundations for the future

Working with Children’s Cancer North has been a privilege. Their dedication to their mission shines through everything they do, and their willingness to reflect, adapt, and enhance their impact speaks volumes about their commitment to families across the region.

Gaining real-time insight into positive change in such a complex area is never straightforward. But by strengthening their systems and sharpening their understanding of impact, Children’s Cancer North is laying foundations that will help them remain resilient, focused, and effective long into the future.

We’re delighted to have supported them on this journey.

Turning Complexity into Clarity

When an organisation has already gathered mountains of feedback, ideas, and evaluation reports, the hardest part of creating a new strategy is often knowing what not to include.

That’s where we began in our recent work with Connected Voice.

Connected Voice is what’s known in the third sector as a Local Infrastructure Organisation (LIO). They play a critical role in Newcastle and Gateshead, supporting the voluntary sector to thrive, and strategically engaging with public and commercial partners to make that happen.

When we joined the process, they had already done a lot of listening — to board members, staff, and members, and through project evaluations. The challenge was making sense of it all, spotting the common threads, and separating the strategic from the tactical.

We began by mapping the big themes and testing them with the team. Then we facilitated live workshops with staff and members, plus online focus groups with other stakeholders — particularly other charities who are members of Connected Voice. The energy and commitment people brought to these sessions was impressive, with participants leaning into the process and taking it seriously.

From there, we worked closely with the Chief Executive and nominated board members to refine the draft plan, iterating until it felt clear, focused, and ready to launch.

The new strategic plan will be unveiled this autumn. It’s designed to steer Connected Voice through the choppy waters facing the sector, while giving them the clarity and confidence to seize key opportunities ahead.

For us at Goodlabs, this was strategy development at its best: turning complexity into clarity, keeping the focus on what really matters, and building ownership across the organisation.

If your charity is ready for a strategic plan that cuts through the noise and sets a clear course for the future, we’d love to help.

Cricket for Good

Making cricket accessible to people with disabilities

Having completed some really interesting projects with sports organisations focused around Football, Rugby and Skateboarding we’ve now begun a really exciting piece of work with Durham Cricket Foundation.

The top flight club, based at the incredible Riverside ground in Chester-le-Street has big ambitions for the future. Responding to new initiatives by the English Cricket Board the DCF is keen to grow its community programmes in terms of reach and impact. Goodlabs have been appointed to support the board and leadership team through the process of formulating a new strategy, rooted in insightful stakeholder consultation.

In addition we’ll help the Foundation to analyse and interpret data from their wide range of community activities in order to produce a new Impact Report to be published alongside the new strategic plan in 2025. There’s so much going on all across the age spectrum and all around the region. We’ve already been pleased to see a really strong inclusion agenda through which cricket is opening up all sorts of connected opportunities for groups of people who often feel left out.

To find out more about the Durham Cricket Foundation click here.

The Impact of Community Organising

It was a pleasure to be in east London for the launch of a substantial new report describing the positive impact that can be made when local churches begin to employ the principles of community organising.

Click here to access the full report.

We’ve been providing consultancy support to the team at the Centre for Theology and Community (CTC) who, along with Citizens UK, have been running the ‘Organising for Growth’ project.

Funded by the Church of England, the project has worked within six parishes located in communities experiencing a range of complex social and economic challenges. However, the fascinating thing about Community Organising methodology is that even in the most difficult of situations it steadfastly refuses to become deficit-defined. Rather, there is a hope-full attitude, rooted in a strong belief about the inherent capacity people possess to change the circumstances around them, especially by working together. This belief is strengthened within a faith-based context that honours the essential dignity and equality of each person.

Having completed an interim evaluation in 2021 this has been a particularly longitudinal study that has provided a special opportunity to observe changes occurring as a sort of time-lapse. Having been first introduced to some of the key people involved in the work more than three years ago it has been fascinating to observe their journeys.

The event itself, inclusive and ecumenical in nature, was a real pleasure to be part of. Whilst hosted in an Anglican context (the historic St. George in the East, Shadwell) key parts were played by Catholic and Pentecostal clergy and congregations too. There were some lovely, poignant moments, and a lot of joy, as people reflected with gratitude on meaningful change taking place at the intersection of the community and the church.

Notes:

Click here to find out more about the work of CTC

Citizens UK defines Community Organising as:
“Bringing people together to win change. This means building community-led solutions to big and small problems, that work for everyone”. Find out more at: citizensuk.org/about-us/what-is-community-organising/