Understanding and evidencing impact
Grounding our work in research and best practice is central to the strategic approach of the Impact Alliance. Today, our members came together to use our shared knowledge, experience and expertise to address the key question of how we will evidence the impact of our work.
Impact Alliance members discuss ways to understand and evidence impact
The Impact Alliance vision is to ‘Make loneliness a stranger’, with Impact Alliance members working together to strengthen connections, transform lives, and build stronger, healthier societies.
But how do we know if it's working?
At today’s Impact Alliance meeting, members shared their experience, knowledge and ideas for how we go about evidencing and understanding the impact of our work, and forming the principles and values that will underpin our approach. This includes being:
Co-produced – working with the Impact Alliance, Enablers and Change Makers to design an approach to understanding impact
Meaningful – being useful for everyone involved, who will be interested in a range of different outcomes
Flexible – an essential requirement, given the wide range of organisations and communities with which we are working
Beneficial - ethical, applicable research, with a commitment to continuous learning
Robust - rigorous, open minded, proportionate
People-centred - empathetic, many-voiced, socially engaged
Situated - community focussed, culturally responsive
Transparent - open data, shared across the Alliance, learning from both success and failure
The Impact Alliance benefits greatly from having the Universities of Bath, Bristol, and West of England amongst its members, as well as a dedicated Impact Alliance Research Fellow, who all freely share their expertise to help us build stronger communities. We are especially grateful to Helen Manchester from the University of Bristol for leading today’s session.
If you’re working to reduce loneliness or have bold ideas to strengthen connection in your community, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at info@impact-alliance.org.uk.