In September the Greater Essex Research Community of Practice is hosting Emma Funnell, the Chief Officer for Citizens Advice Tendring, who will deliver a session about service evaluation together with colleagues from University College London and Essex County Council.
Emma will explain how she has worked in collaboration with Essex County Council and University College London to create an evaluation that has helped deliver real insight on a mental health recovery programme.
The session will cover:
How developing a theory of change helped add value to communicating the value of the programme and the monitoring work.
How this led to Emma working with Dr Rachel Benchekroun from University College London to do a piece of realist evaluation, which has revealed further insights from conversations with programme staff and programme participants.
And how colleagues are looking to communicate the findings to appeal to a range of audiences – by linking
The evaluation findings into wider theories about social networks, social infrastructure and recovery journeys.
And inviting members of the voluntary and community sector into a follow-up informal workshop to discuss insights and lessons learned on supporting people back into work.
This webinar will be relevant to anyone in the VCSE sector with an interest in evaluation, mental health recovery and supporting people back into work.
Please email mike.williams@essex.gov.uk for an invite.
The Essex Alliance is sharing this training opportunity on behalf of Mind in West Essex.
The Essentials workshop is the foundation for workplace wellbeing, and it’s at the core of everything we do at The Mental Health Toolkit.
This half-day session takes you through the Mental Health Continuum – the spectrum of mental health that we are all on – and introduces you to the Emotional Needs & Resources approach.
Unmet emotional needs trigger symptoms of mental ill health. Understanding how to meet them helps you understand what you need to be well, and enables you to take care of yourself and those around you.
The dates below have been fully funded by Essex County Council, and are offered free of charge for staff and volunteers of any VCSE organisations working in Essex.
The Essex Alliance is sharing this on behalf of the Making It Count Project, a partnership between Essex County Council and the University of Essex.
In speaking with many community and voluntary sector organisations, a key challenge they face is evidencing the impact of their work. Many have told us that the issue is not counting activities, but demonstrating outcomes such as:
Increased confidence
Reduced isolation
Sense of belonging
Improved wellbeing
Long-term change
These outcomes matter deeply, but they can be difficult to measure consistently and meaningfully.
Addressing this challenge is at the heart of the Making It Count project– a partnership between the University of Essex and Essex County Council. This project aims to support Voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE) organisations by creating a simple, practical toolkit to help them measure their impact. We are looking for VCSE organisations and community stakeholders in ESSEX to join us in developing this toolkit together.
There will be opportunities to contribute through:
Workshops
Feedback sessions
Reviewing draft approaches
Sharing challenges and priorities from practice
Whether you work in a food bank, community organisation, wellbeing service, social prescribing programme, volunteer-led project, or another community setting, your experience could help shape the future toolkit.
Are you delivering services in Essex and interested in getting involved? Contact us below.
