The Impact of Arts

Goodlabs MD, Matt Wilson, at Gosforth Civic Theatre

Gosforth Civic Theatre is a fantastic arts venue on the north side of Newcastle. It has recently undergone a huge refurb project and has a great atmosphere. The vibe of the place is about far more than the new internal layout - it’s all about the people. GCT is home to Liberdade, an innovative arts charity that supports people with learning disabilities. We were delighted to be introduced as part of our ongoing work with the Lloyds Bank Foundation.

Our work with GCT was twofold…

First, we facilitated a full review of their existing theory of change. Our objective was to ensure that it really accurately and accessibly described the impact being made in the lives of programme participants. In practice this meant mapping out the different participant groups, both PWLD and not. Matt facilitated a staff workshop to develop a draft set of outcomes and the team followed this up with some specific engagement with their LD groups to sense check it. The final draft revolved around five “I CAN” statements: I can be happy, I can be healthy, I can be me, I can be creative, I can belong.

The other half of the work related to preparation for the shift to a CRM system that can be used to monitor participation and measure impact. This involved looking at the wide range of activities that are taking place, how they are currently being recorded, what data is being held at the moment about participants, and how all this might interface with the distinctly different data operation around the marketing of shows, the sale of tickets and receiving feedback from audiences.

It’s always great to work with charities that are so embedded in their local communities and getting on with their work with a sense of vision and of joy. This really came across in this project :-)

North East Youth Alliance

Visualising the interconnected elements of the initiative

Goodlabs were appointed as external evaluators and learning partners to the North East Youth Alliance back in early 2022. We are just embarking on the third of our reports into the the progress being made by the initiative against its ambitious aims and objectives.

Whilst we operate across many different branches of the voluntary sector work with children and young people is a key area of strength and expertise within our overall portfolio of work. This reflects the experience of our MD, Matt Wilson, who spent the first two decades of his career involved in leading charities focused in this area. So it’s always exciting to be contributing to the development of new capacity and learning in this sector.

The North East Youth Alliance formed in 2021 with a 5-year £1 million funding award from the National Lottery Community Fund. Its overarching aims are visualised in the graphic above which shows how a change in culture is achieved by work undertaken in developing delivery and strengthening support. The project is being jointly led by two core partners, Youth Focus NE and NE Youth. Over 100 other organisations from around the region are involved as ‘allies’.

Our work over the next six months will involve pursuing several interconnected lines of enquiry gathering evidence of the impact being made in each of the three core themes shown in the model above. One of the advantages of journeying with a client over a period of years is the ability to develop a real depth of insight into what’s going on. A relationship of support and challenge can be developed with the key leaders and there is genuine opportunity to be a critical friend in the best possible sense of the phrase.

As we embark on this next chapter of the evaluation we’re looking forward to what the next few months will bring. Despite continued financial challenges for the youth sector across the UK there’s a very real sense that through the North East Youth Alliance new pathways are being created that show the way to a brighter and more sustainable future.

From Access to Salesforce

Bristol-based counselling charity Kinergy are a very busy service dealing with hundreds of clients per year across Bristol, Avon and the wider area. They came to us with a range of data management headaches.

At the heart of the problem was the fact that their old server-based Microsoft Access database had become pretty much obsolete. It was no longer serving their needs, particularly with respect to remote working, and also due to difficulties when seeking to report their impact to funders. Compounding this was the fact that a commercial Salesforce developer lacking experience in the charity sector had attempted to solve their problems and failed. Frustration was running high and time was running short!

Following an introduction via the Lloyds Bank Foundation we got to work assessing the functional requirements of the charity. Our ability to compare and contrast their operating model with that of dozens of other charities we’ve worked with meant that time could be spent more efficiently. It became apparent that the basic system architecture could be assembled by bringing together a number of tried and tested elements from other Salesforce development projects we’ve led. A number of custom features could then be woven in to ensure organisation-specific needs were met. As a further element of the project we were able to exceed client expectations by introducing new features they hadn’t previously known were deliverable. Moving all referral processes online using digital forms was a real game-changer in terms of efficiency, along with a fundamental shift towards paperless working.

The charity’s business manager Bert Weenink comments:

“We were getting increasingly frustrated that we could not make Salesforce match our very specific needs. This was after spending a considerable amount of money on ‘expert’ help provided by advisors who just didn’t understand what we wanted our new database to produce. Through the Enhance programme sponsored by the Lloyds Bank Foundation we contacted Matt Wilson. From the moment our Clinical Manager and myself started talking to Matt we found that he understood exactly what we were looking for and what could be done to make Salesforce to fit our needs. Matt’s understanding of the needs of our charity and his awareness of technical solutions were second to none. We are deeply grateful to him for getting our new CRM ready for use!”

Listening to service users

Durham County Carers Support is a fantastic charity that we’ve had the pleasure of working with on a number of projects over the past few years.

Supporting charities to create new strategic plans is one of the “bread and butter” things we do at Goodlabs. Every new strategic plan is unique and interesting in its own way. What made this project particularly enjoyable was the commitment of Durham Carers to involve its service users in the strategic planning process. There was a real determination to design a method of engagement that would be both meaningful for the Carers participating as well as insightful for the charity.

Goodlabs designed and facilitated the process which involved live events in the four corners of County Durham. A lot of miles were covered that week but it was absolutely worth it! Whilst the same process was followed in each location it was fascinating to see emergence of some key local differences along with common themes. All the content generated was written up in headline format and fed into an Away Day for Trustees and key staff. Equipped with fresh insights from the frontline a range of strategic priorities for the future could be devised.

CEO Jenni Wood commented:

We’re really thankful for the support to review and develop our new 5 year Strategic Plan. It involved facilitating workshops with groups of Carers over a tight timescale. This was followed by meetings with staff, volunteers and trustees to scope out priorities and outcomes. Our new plan which clearly sets out our vision and aims for the future was produced efficiently and arrived on time. I can’t recommend Matt and Goodlabs highly enough.

Launching the "Rugby+" framework

Launching Rugby+ at Kingston Park, Newcastle

It was fantastic to be at Kingston Park this week, home of the Newcastle Falcons Rugby Union and Newcastle Thunder Rugby League teams.

We were there for the official launch of the new Rugby+ framework, which we've been supporting the Newcastle Rugby Foundation to develop over the course of the year. There was incredible buzz in the venue from around a hundred specially invited guests as we listened to stories of how the foundation is making an impact in people’s lives.

Enhancing Impact is at the heart of everything we do at Goodlabs and we’ve been thrilled to be able to walk a journey with NRF as they have sought to more clearly articulate the difference they make. A big part of impact management being really clear about the change you want to achieve in people’s lives, then working back from this to ensure that you have all the necessary links in the chain to make it happen.

We produced a new theory of change for the foundation, linked to a detailed Outcomes Framework containing a range of bespoke indicators to enable the tracking of participant progress over time. Time was taken to make sure this framework could be embedded in the CRM system that the foundation uses (Upshot) as well as training key members of staff in how to use a number of new/updated digital evidence collection tools.

By organising the new framework into four headline themes, linking in to the Rugby+ branding, we ensured that the new ideas become ‘sticky’ within the team, and can be easily communicated to stakeholders. (see graphic below) It was great to have the chance to collaborate with marketing agency Cravens to develop and finesse the language used in the model.

Good luck to all the team as you step up your activities in the months ahead :-)

The four impact themes in the new Rugby+ framework

Engaging Stakeholders on Purpose

Photo credit: Wokandapix at Pixabay.com

It’s been great to have the opportunity to work with Action Foundation again, this time supporting their new CEO to take a fresh look at the charity’s Purpose.

Transitions can be challenging times for organisations but Newcastle-based refugee and asylum support charity Action Foundation have been handling the handover of their senior leader extremely well. Looking to the long term their new CEO felt it important to take a fresh look at the way the vision and mission of the charity are understood and articulated. Via our mutual friends at Lloyds Bank Foundation we got together to consider what this process might mean.

It became apparent that having separate vision and mission statements wasn’t necessarily helping strategic clarity. At Goodlabs we’re seeing more and more of our clients opting for a single, powerful statement of Purpose. Once it was agreed that this was the destination the task was - how to get there?

Goodlabs were tasked with designing a Stakeholder Lab format that would engage staff, volunteers and service users in exercises designed to generate and refine the key ideas that form the essence of the charity. The Labs would be repeated up to a dozen times over a one month period with groups in Newcastle and Sunderland, as well as online. Probably the biggest challenge was with language, as for many participants English wasn’t their mother tongue. Hats off to the team we worked with who ensured that everyone present was able to fully engage and offer meaningful contributions.

Following successful delivery of the schedule of Labs we supplied an insights report summarising the key ideas that emerged and setting up the SLT for the remaining in-house task of wordsmithing their final statement.

“Wonderfully helpful” was the feedback received from the client.

We’re happy with that :-)

Making an impact with IMO in Blackburn

“Inspire, Motivate, Overcome” - they are the driving principles of the Inter Madrassah Organisation in Blackburn.

The charity, originally founded by a small but very committed group of local volunteers has grown rapidly now and now reaches thousands of local people every year with a range of support and activities. IMO has particular expertise in working with young people and families mainly of BAME heritage, facing multiple disadvantages.

Goodlabs was introduced to the charity as part of our work supporting the Lloyds Bank Foundation ‘Enhance’ programme. Having scaled up their operation substantially in response to local need that emerged during the coronavirus pandemic IMO are keen to explore how to more systematically embed impact management into their organisation at both the strategic and operational level. A new outcomes framework is being developed, to be embedded into their CRM system and aligned with frontline evidence-gathering tools.

The photo above shows members of the core team at a recent ‘Impact Lab’ facilitated by Goodlabs at the Eanam Wharf Business Centre in Blackburn.

Making the light even brighter in Sunderland

We’re delighted to have commenced a new impact project with the Foundation of Light, the official charitable foundation of Sunderland Football Club.

The Foundation has its home in the world-class ‘Beacon of Light’ community sports facility that stands prominently alongside the Stadium of Light in Sunderland. A wide range of programmes are offered at the Beacon opening up access to football alongside a vast array of other activities designed to support healthy development in all aspects of life. However, impressive as it is, there’s far more to the Foundation that just the work that happens at the Beacon site. Teams of foundation staff are also out and about around the area seven days a week, delivering programmes in schools and in the community.

Goodlabs is supporting the Foundation with a strategic piece of work to make an even bigger impact in the years ahead. We’re working with staff from senior leaders through to frontline delivery in order to align and embed the impact ambitions of the Foundation’s new strategic plan. Backed by an array of funders and stakeholders including key partners such as the Premier League Charitable Fund there is huge opportunity. The challenge is to empower every single member of the team to evidence the difference they’re making clearly and consistently. It’s about making impact everyone’s business. It’s a vital task that we’re so pleased to be able to support with.

Impact Award Winners

It was incredibly satisfying to see that two years of behind the scenes work with YMCA North Tyneside was recognised with the scooping of a prestigious award! At a swanky dinner in London the charity bagged the 2019 Charity Governance Award in the Improving Impact category.

Since 2017 Goodlabs had been working with the charity leading on the development of a sophisticated strengths-based impact framework enabling staff to target and tailor interventions for service users. The framework enabled young people, especially those in YMCA accommodation, to be supported over time using a simple assessment tool, embedded in a CRM, offering real-time insights and enabling learning and improvement.

The ‘Strengths Framework’ is rooted in an asset-based philosophy that refuses to allow people to be ‘defined by their deficits’. It is about ‘what is strong, not what is wrong’. Working this way gives young people the best possible opportunity to overcome the difficult start they’ve had in life in order to transition to a brighter future.

Find out more here

Evaluating support to Adult Carers

The Big Lottery is the UK’s largest community funder with annual grant-making in excess of £500million per year to over 10,000 grant recipient organisations. As such, ensuring that its money is well-spend and making an impact is hugely important.

Goodlabs were appointed to evaluate the impact of a substantial three-year grant given to North Tyneside Carers Centre in support of their work with Adult Carers. A carer is anyone who cares, unpaid, for a friend or family member who due to illness, disability, a mental health or substance misuse problem cannot cope without their support. Many carers struggle alone and do not know their rights or that help is available to them. Taking on a caring role can mean facing a life of poverty, isolation, frustration, ill health and depression.

Our evaluation looked at the full range of support activities being provided to Adult Carers and included interviewing staff, volunteers, beneficiaries and professional stakeholders. There was also the task of scrutinising, assessing and interpreting 3 years worth of management data relating to over 1000 clients.

We were pleased to report that NTCC exceeded the overall numbers of carers that it hoped to reach and that the ACES project achieved its goals in each of its four key outcome themes. Lessons learned over the course of the project were included in our final report, along with a number of strategic recommendations for the future to further strengthen organisational capacity.

Conducting evaluations is a growing part of our work at Goodlabs. Please do get in touch if you’d like us to tender for proposal work that you might have coming up: evaluation@goodlabs.uk