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New policy blog launched to kick-off Pro Bono Economics’ anniversary year and build upon current thought leadership work
“Technological innovation – a gift or a curse for young people’s mental health?”. This is the question explored within the first in a new series of forthcoming monthly blogs, drafted by the team internally at Pro Bono Economics (see here). These will explore the various themes that, through our “day job” helping charities understand and improve their social impact, the team can speak to with credibility. From the value of robust impact measurement, the reputation of charities (and economics) to the benefits on offer to those skilled volunteers giving up their time on a pro-bono basis, this blog will form part of Pro Bono Economics’ wider thought leadership work. After ten years in existence, this seems an especially appropriate time to begin sharing the benefits of our collective learnings with a much wider audience, highlighting how they may potentially offer valuable insights to policymakers as well as charities.
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Pro Bono Economics Colleagues in the Media
January 22nd, 2019: Patron Martin Wolf discussed the need for economic action and strong leadership to tackle climate change in the Financial Times.
January 15th, 2019: Business Leader reports Patron Dame Kate Barker was appointed to lead an independent economic commission, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Independent Economic Review, to shape the future growth plans of the area.
January 14th, 2019: Lord Jim O'Neill featured on Reasons to be Cheerful, the podcast hosted by Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd, to discuss the recommendations made in Shelter's recent cross-party commission report on the provision of social housing.
January 2nd, 2019: Patrons Diane Coyle, Bronwen Curtis, Howard Davies and Vicky Pryce spoke to the FT on predicting the UK's economic trajectory in 2019.
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Governors for Schools aims to improve educational standards throughout the UK through effective governance, pairing governors and trustees with schools and providing resources and support. Volunteers from Ashurst and the Health & Safety Executive worked with the charity to help it understand the outcomes it achieves through its activities, as well as examining KPIs for continued improvement.
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Ingrid Petrie from SYSTRA Ltd worked with Veterans Aid, a charity providing support services to veterans in crisis, to carry out an economic analysis of the costs and benefits of its work. By assessing the extent to which it improves outcomes in six key areas, the potential benefits of the work have been quantified in the form of fiscal savings to government with the estimated potential gross benefit of the support totalling £965k, against costs of £274K.
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MyBnk provides a range of financial education and enterprise workshops in schools and youth organisations. Volunteers from Ofwat reviewed the monitoring and evaluation procedures of MyBnk's Money Twist programmes, and provided advice on the feasibility of an economic evaluation.
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Volunteers from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy worked to develop data requirements for measuring outcomes and then monetise these outcomes, to create a model for use by Community First's programme Building Bridges, a programme jointly funded by the Big Lottery Fund and European Social Fund to help people overcome their barriers to employment and education across Swindon and Wiltshire.
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Do you know an economist who could help us?
Share this with a friend or colleague who would be great at volunteering their expertise to help charities.
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