What does measuring change mean to you?

Measuring change support helps partnerships to understand their achievements and better plan for the future. It’s also about exploring questions and ideas that partnerships want to unpack and share learning with the community and others. Hear from Helene in Beechwood, Ballantyne & Bidston Village Big Local and Nick in Hackney Wick about why it’s important for them to understand the changes they’ve made in their area.

What does measuring change mean to you?

Helene from Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village Big Local recently took part in the measuring change support. The partnership defined measuring change as:

• Identifying the difference that Big Local makes to the area and residents
• Identifying the changes that Big Local is creating
• Identifying who is benefiting and how

Measuring the changes they’re making will help Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village tell the story of what they are achieving and how they are doing it.

Beechwood, Ballantyne & Bidston Village Big Local are in the early stages of their support and the partnership have identified a range of reasons why measuring change is important to them. Through the support, they’ll be able to demonstrate the difference they’ve made and also have the right tools to continue collecting the right information. For Helene and the rest of the partnership, it’s important that they’re able to show residents and funders that the money has been spent well and also to recognise achievements. It’s also an opportunity to motivate residents to join in and learn what’s working well or what could be improved.

Why is measuring the changes your Big Local area’s making important?

As the Hackney Wick partnership define what their legacy will be, they want to ensure that whatever they choose will enable them to continue making positive changes in their local community. Nick got in touch with the research team about the measuring change support because they want to use it to show the contribution they’ve made to Hackney in the past 5 years. This learning will then provide them with a good understanding of what they’re doing well and how they can continue to make a difference after the Big Local funding.

Hackney Wick’s Big Local model is to not tackle individual problems, but to draw on community assets to find long-term solutions to the issues that the community has identified. They are using the support to understand the extent to which they have developed networks of community groups and relationships with the local authority to make long-term change.

They hope to use the report that comes out of the support to firm up their legacy plan and attract additional funding from the local authority.

How can measuring change help you?

Get in touch with the research team if you want to learn more about the support available. The support is available for all areas, no matter what your ability to measure change is (most partnerships that we work with realise through the support they know a lot more about measuring change than they initially thought!). If you think the support could help your partnership, get in touch with research@localtrust.org.uk