Getting others to test what we do
It’s all too easy to get carried away with amazing stories of young people engaging with outdoor adventurous activities and having meaningful, impactful experiences. I love listening to and telling such stories. It is important that we get others to test that these stories are reflective of what really happens and equally importantly, that it can be experienced by all the young people we work with.
To do this the Lindley team who focus on youth and community work have spent some time describing exactly what they do, how they do it and what the outcomes of that work are. The resultant theory of change included a development cycle that is proving useful in better understanding how to plan, deliver and evaluate our work with our youth & community groups. It has also helped our Trustees to see how we are delivering the Charity’s objectives.
Until recently our development cycle was something that had not been tested by anybody outside of the Trust. Although we were confident it described how we reached some fantastic outcomes for the young people we work with, we decided to approach Nottingham Trent University to ask them to take a look at what we do and compare that to what we say we do and the resultant outcomes.
The small team from Nottingham visited our work in Ashton-u-Lyne, speaking to a variety of local young people engaged with different types of weekly youth clubs and longer-term projects, including drop-in evening sessions, football coaching and winter mountaineering. They also spoke to volunteers and employed staff working with the young people. So what did they think?
Data gathered by our researchers supports the development cycle
Many of the young people were highly self-reflective about their own personal and social development through the group. Several reported on the ‘different’ experience from school where they had new opportunities to be successful in their own terms and on their own challenges
Young people reported on the value of social interactions through meeting new people, ‘being challenged’ and the development of transferable qualities such as empathy, resilience and confidence
Thanks to the team at Nottingham Trent for their work this summer and for their recommendations to help us to continue to develop not only our work in Greater Manchester but also in Sheffield.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Lindley’s youth and community work, working in partnership with us to reach more young people or helping to fund this valuable work please contact us.
