It is important to build evaluation into your project from the beginning so you can understand what the overall impact of the project has been on mental health related outcomes.
Doing this will help to identify areas of success and areas for development and change relating to the project.
It is expected that once your programme has ended, or nine months from the start deadline of the project (1 March 2023), an evaluation form will be completed to show the impact of the project.
Support will be offered throughout the funded period to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your project.
What outcomes are measured
We will measure the success of this project using two desired outcomes: the reduction of social isolation and loneliness and the improvement of mental health and wellbeing.
Grant recipients will be asked to measure the impact of their work on participants at their first and last interaction with your project, group or service, or at quarterly intervals, using the following metrics:
Social isolation and loneliness
‘Thinking about how much contact you’ve had with people you like, which of the following statements best describes your social situation?
- I have as much social contact as I want with people I like
- I have adequate social contact with people
- I have some social contact with people, but not enough
- I have little social contact with people and feel socially isolated
Mental health and wellbeing
‘Overall how anxious did you feel yesterday?’ With 0 representing no anxiety and 10 representing extreme anxiety.
‘Overall how happy did you feel yesterday?’ With 0 representing not happy at all and 10 representing totally happy.
We will ask you to record the number of individuals you support and their demographic information, along with the number of volunteers involved in your programme.
We will also ask you to report on any funding or resources you secure to sustain this work beyond the period funded by this grant.
How to measure and show impact
We encourage you to use the templates at the beginning and end of your project to show the true effect of your project. The templates can be used alongside other evaluation tools such as:
- focus groups
- before and after photographs
- verbal feedback from participants and volunteers/staff
- participant learning journals
This can provide you with a wider variety of feedback and reveal the broader impacts of the project.
Templates can be requested from phgrants@n-somerset.gov.uk if you are successful.