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.

East London Churches' Community Impact

During the coronavirus pandemic everyone’s life was disrupted… shops, offices, schools, and also places of worship. In this fascinating project Goodlabs were asked to produce an external evaluation of the work of a grop of churches in East London as they mobilised members to support their local communities.

“Organising For Growth” is an initiative of the Centre for Theology and Community, an organisation well-known for its work in the arena of community organising and social enterprise development. The CTC has been part of highly effective campaigns to secure the Living Wage for local cleaners, and even launched its own ethical cleaning company, Clean For Good.

Whilst the launch of “Organising For Growth” in late 2019 meant that its first year was more than a little turbulent we found an extremely impressive range of community-oriented activities had taken place, even under lockdown. Of particular note was the way in which clergy had enabled lay members of their congregations to grow in their leadership by taking responsibility for important community campaigns and programmes.

Our interim evaluation was published earlier this month. We will continue to journey with the project through 2022 producing our final evaluation in early 2023.

Supporting Oasis Housing's Vision for Enterprise

Oasis Community Housing are widely respected for the compassionate and consistent support they offer to people experiencing homelessness. With deep roots in the North East, as well as projects around London, they are constantly striving to improve lives. Goodlabs were invited to tender to support the charity in an exciting social enterprise feasibility project, and were delighted to win the work.

Like all charities OCH exists in a challenging funding environment and in order to ensure its long-term sustainability must spread risk by operating a mixed-income model combining both fundraising and revenue-generation. Our feasibility study needed to account for dual objectives of generating unrestricted income as well as delivering social value and employability progression for those the charity serves. In order to deliver on the objectives of the work Goodlabs brought on board Jessie Joe Jacobs as an associate consultant. As a prior winner of the Sunday Times Social Entrepreneur of the Year award Jessie brought important insight and know-how to the project.

The project proceeded in three phases, firstly exploring a wide range of opportunities that OCH might want to consider, then narrowing down to a smaller range of options to evaluate in more detail, before finally working up costed business plans for two new social enterprises.

We look forward to continuing to advise the charity as they secure the necessary start up funding and begin to push ahead with the plans.

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.

Researching The Impact of Hearing Loss

Goodlabs have been supporting the development of Tyneside-based charity Deaflink for the last year or so as part of a package of Lottery-funded support. The first phase of our work involved looking at how Deaflink could support local hospitals to better serve the needs of users of British Sign Language. In this next phase we shift focus to the issue of Hearing Loss.

The prevalence of Hearing Loss is reasonably well-known, affecting some 87,000 people in the Newcastle-Gateshead CCG region*. What is less well-known is how those experiencing Hearing Loss feel about it, especially here in the North East. This is where we hope to be able to shed some new light, bringing to the fore a range of authentic accounts of the challenges experienced, as well as the things that help.

*18-70 age group, hearing loss range of 25 - 64 dBHL

The Win, Win, Win

This month Goodlabs facilitated a virtual event with forward-thinking businesses to discuss the way that Covid-19 has transformed Employee Volunteering. The event was the culmination of a piece of research work that Goodlabs has been undertaking for VODA. Special guests from EE, Newcastle Building Society, Greggs and many others joined the conversation which was kindly chaired by Karen Goldfinch of North Tyneside Business Forum.

Regional VCS infrastructure organisation VODA had responded rapidly to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic by working alongside the local council to launch a support hub for vulnerable residents. The support offered was human-centred and practical in nature, simply known as: Good Neighbours. With volunteering at its heart the hub introduced VODA to hundreds of new volunteers, many adjusting to working from home rather than in shared offices. As the first lockdown relaxed VODA asked Goodlabs to lead a learning project to highlight the key ways in which impact had been made.

Thousands of vulnerable and isolated people received absolutely essential support through the work of the hub. Food parcels and vital medicines were delivered to those who could not leave their homes. However, one of the most interesting findings related to the volunteers themselves, especially to those volunteers adjusting to remote rather than office working. We found that:

1. Remote workers universally appreciated the opportunity to break up their working day by undertaking a volunteer assignment.

2. They benefitted from the social contact, which goes some way to replacing the social contact previously enjoyed at the office.

3. They have experienced ‘emotional payback’. Helping other gives an uplift in wellbeing that adds buoyancy to their working week.

We also found that these effects combined to mitigate known factors associated with working from home that are limiters on productivity. This in turn makes the experience of remote working more sustainable over the longer term. Our conclusion was therefore that a regular volunteer opportunity is therefore:

• good for the employee, WIN ✓

• good for those they support, WIN ✓

• good for the employer too. WIN ✓

A challenge was laid down to businesses to embracing a new model of employee volunteering:

• Out with the proverbial ‘teams painting sheds’. Prior models of CSR centred around large teams of staff engaging in full-day mass volunteering is called into question.

• Breaking days into hours.More flexible approaches to ‘volunteering allowances’ within HR policies appear to be the new trend and need to be adopted more widely.

Gateshead System Transformation

Gateshead Multiple & Complex Needs Initiative

Goodlabs is working with Oasis Community Housing, Collective Impact Agency and Helme Park on this important piece of work that is supported by Fulfilling Lives Newcastle & Gateshead and reporting into the Gateshead Health & Care Systems Board.

The aims of this Gateshead MCN Transformation Initiative are:

•To yield new insights into the ways in which the Gateshead system is dealing with people experiencing MCN

•To reveal where over-complexity within the system is working against the achieving of outcomes

•To highlight where innovation has enabled better outcomes for those with MCN

•To make recommendations for the rationalising of the multiple professional contexts concerned with MCN issues

•To leverage improvement within the system that will benefit both service-users and professionals

We are pleased to release our interim report which summarises our work so far giving our initial findings. It is not intended as a set of recommendations for the Gateshead system rather to stimulate discussion to inform and direct the next phase of the work. We do intend to make recommendations in our final report, due in February of 2021.

>> The interim report can be downloaded here

FEB 2021 UPDATE:

The project is now complete and the final report has been published (link below). Entitled “People at the Heart” the report is rooted in interviews, focus groups and meetings with over 100 people from across the Gateshead health and care system. This included professionals working in the public sector and the voluntary sector, as well as groups of ‘experts by experience’. The report sets out 4 priorities and links these to a set of 12 principles, linked to 12 corresponding practices. The diagram below shows the 4 priorities at the centre, surrounded by the 12 principles.

>> The final report can be downloaded here

New CRM system for Rape Crisis

Rape Crisis Tyneside & Northumberland belongs to the national network of Rape Crisis centres, providing vital services for women who have experienced sexual abuse, exploitation and violence. Our connection came via our delivery relationship with Lloyds Bank Foundation, one of RCTN’s funders, along with the Ministry of Justice and others.

Like many charities in receipt of funding from major public and corporate sector sources RCTN has to navigate a vast array of statistics about the work that it is delivering. Historically this had been done via a Microsoft Access database but this technology was fast becoming obsolete and its limitations myriad.

Goodlabs supported RCTN through a multi-phased project that involved reflecting critically on systems and processes for client/case management, along with development of a Theory of Change and Outcomes Framework. This was followed by the production of a detailed specification outlining the essential functionality of the new CRM, and then taking this to the market via a proportionate tendering process. Systems were demoed, providers shortlisted and interviewed and eventually a decision made.

Finally Goodlabs provided arms-length project management through the build and implementation phase, support with export and import of historic data, plus the coaching and training of key staff to ensure rapid adoption of the new platform (a custom iteration of the Salesforce based ‘In-Form’ supplied by Homeless Link).

Growing Greggs' work in Schools

Greggs CEO Roger Whiteside opening the Greggs Foundation’s 500th Breakfast Club.

It’s fantastic to be working again with our friends at the Greggs Foundation on what is certainly one of the most exciting projects that Goodlabs has undertaken to date. Goodlabs is all about helping organisations to make a bigger social impact and that’s exactly what this project is about.

We were presented with the challenge “How can we grow our network of Breakfast Clubs from 500 to 1000 in the next 5 years?” To put that into context it took 20 years to get to the first 500. Succeeding will mean that around 30,000 more children a day are supported to get to school on time, and readied for a day of learning by being provided with a nutritious breakfast within a positive and caring environment.

To fulfil the brief we’re drawing on MD Matt Wilson’s two decades of experience in ‘social franchising’, along with best practice published by others active in the field of scaling up social innovation in recent years. In-depth analysis of the existing Breakfast Model will be conducted in order to eliminate any drag factors holding back growth. The wider landscape of partnership will be considered too, with companies belonging to the Greggs supply chain presenting an interesting opportunity.

You can find out more about the Greggs Breakfast Clubs network, and how you can get involved in it, by clicking here.

Supporting Housing Decarbonisation

The Northern Housing Consortium represents and acts as the collective ‘voice’ of around 70 social housing providers across the north of England, with hundreds of thousands of properties under management. Seeking to respond to the growing sense of urgency around the Climate Crisis NHC approached Goodlabs to support a strategic new project focused on the decarbonisation of social housing across the north.

NHC are rightly concerned that housing is a major contributor to CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. Inefficient boilers powering antiquated heating systems in poorly insulated homes makes for a poor carbon footprint. It also means that social housing tenants, often living on the poverty line, pay considerably more in fuel bills than they would do in a more efficient home. In order to provide clarity, generate ideas and get purchase on this vital agenda NHC contracted Goodlabs to lead them through a Theory of Change process.  

A Theory of Change is a visual model generally rendered as a diagram or illustration accompanied by explanatory text. It seeks to clarify the steps by which change happens, that is, the way that a project or programme of work brings about an impact upon individuals and group toward which the work is directed. Theory of Change achieves this by explaining the relationships between the problem being addressed, the resources deployed, the actions taken and the outcomes achieved. Organisations of all kinds use Theory of Change to demonstrate to internal and external stakeholders that their work has clear method, logic and cohesion, and therefore that impact can be reliably delivered, rather than being left to chance.

Brian Robson, NHC’s Executive Director for Policy and Public Affairs reflects:  

“We worked with Goodlabs on our organisation’s first Theory of Change. Matt took the time to understand our needs and developed a Lab format that enabled staff from all levels of the organisation to contribute. We then worked with Matt to turn the outputs from the Lab into a coherent Theory of Change model that was endorsed by our Board. I enjoyed working with Matt - he was supportive, constructive and collaborative - and hope the opportunity arises to do so again.”

Service Redesign for VODA

Everyone knows the incredible work undertaken by Britain’s charities - also known as the ‘Voluntary Sector’. Less well known is the equally vital work of the infrastructure organisations working behind the scenes to ensure that the voluntary sector continues to thrive. In the borough of North Tyneside the body providing this support is VODA.

Goodlabs was approached back in 2019 to lead on a project involving taking a fresh look at VODA’s flagship ‘Sector Connector’ programme. For several years now the programme has acted as a ‘broker’ between the many businesses in the borough and the local charities that they seek to support, mainly through employee volunteering schemes.

Recognising a desire amongst corporates to make a greater contribution to the wider community VODA commissioned Goodlabs to design and lead a process through which Sector Connector could be made even more effective as a mechanism for connecting corporate volunteers with local charities.

The process being followed involves engaging with all stakeholders to establish the opportunities on offer and also the challenges to be overcome. Labs and focus groups are being utilised in order to surface the areas in which development is required, and where relevant also being informed by wider research available in the field of employer-supported volunteering (ESV).

The aim is to be ready to pilot a ‘Sector Connector 2.0’ sometime in the autumn of 2020. Firms wishing to be involved can email: SC2.0@goodlabs.uk for more info.

Researching community collaboration in Gateshead

As a research project focused on understanding innovative community-led initiatives located in a historic inner city community this work is very much in our sweet spot.

The ‘Best of Bensham Collaborative’, funded by Gateshead Council, involves numerous local organisations working together for the betterment of the community, which continues to feel the worst effects of social and economic inequality despite many previous efforts to turn around its fortunes.

In November 2019 Goodlabs was appointed as external evaluator for the project to produce an outcomes/impact evaluation. The evaluation has two aims. The first, is to establish the extent to which the Best of Bensham project has fulfilled its funding objectives. The second is to be a resource for learning, firstly within the core group of stakeholder organisations and then more widely to all who have an interest in Asset-Based approaches to community work.

Potential project impacts that are of interest include the project leading and supporting:

• Increased capacity of organisations, associations and communities to address the inequalities and impact of poverty in the neighbourhood.

• Increased community capacity to meet local needs through new or extended social and support networks

• Changing the relationship between communities and VCS/Statutory Services through co-production, towards a view of public

  services as vital but a last resort, so reducing demand.

• Actions that improve wellbeing and quality of life

The final evaluation report will be published in spring of 2021.