News
Come and work with us!
We’e recruiting for two really exciting fixed-term roles. Firstly, we’re seeking an Enterprise Development Manager to work exclusively on the Centre’s role in the Access Foundation’s Enterprise Development Programme, where the Centre is the sector partner for the Youth strand of the programme. We are looking for someone with particularinterest and expertise in social enterprise and capacity building for social sector organisations – you’ll need to have experience in training and facilitation and be an excellent relationship manager!
We also want to appoint an outstanding Executive Director to a six-month post, working hand in hand with our CEO, Bethia, to bring much-needed senior capacity to the Centre. We need an influential and strategic thinker, with a strong understanding of the policy and practice context for the youth sector, and a keen interest in evaluation and quality improvement. We’re open to applications from 0.6FTE to full time, and to secondments.
The full job descriptions for both roles can be found here. Do get in touch if you’d like an informal conversation.
We really want to hear your views – feed into our Strategic Plan consultation
We’re working on our new strategy and – given the seismic changes we’re all living through – would love to hear your thoughts on where and how we focus our energies in the immediate and medium term future in order to create the most positive change for young people. We’re holding two open consultation events on 22 Feb and 3 March and we would like to invite you to join us to shape our plans. Sign up here.
A reminder - join our Practitioner Panel
Here’s a reminder to check out our new Practitioner Panel! As part of the legacy of the Youth Investment Fund, and particularly the importance of collaboration with practitioners through the evaluation design process, the Centre for Youth Impact is establishing a new Practitioner Panel this year. We’d like to work with a small group of youth practitioners to design, refine and test our new resources, and specifically the suite of measurement tools we’re working on right now. To find out more, and express interest in joining the panel, please visit our website. Thanks to all those of you who’ve already been in touch - we’ll be following up soon. For those who haven’t yet expressed interest, we’ve extended the deadline to Friday 29 January.
Youth Programme Quality Intervention (YPQI) - plans for 2021
We are looking forward to running another Programme Quality Assessment (PQA) Basics training in early February for Welsh organisations that want to take part in the YPQI. If you are an organisation working with young people in Wales and are interested in getting involved, please get in touch at ypqi@youthimpact.uk. Earlier this week we ran several information sessions to introduce the YPQI and discuss how it aligns with and complements the Welsh Quality Mark. Do get in touch if you have questions about this.
We are also planning an additional PQA Basics training session in early March for any other organisations across the UK that would like to sign up to the programme. If you’re interested, please get in touch using the email address above.
For organisations already involved, we will be running two additional training sessions focused on using observation data to run team meetings, improvement planning, and supporting your colleagues and team to put specific improvement goals intro practice. Planning with Data and Quality Coaching training will take place in mid-February - if you’re currently on the pilot programme, we’ll be in touch soon with a link for you to sign up!
London Data Standard
Following on our work on the Youth Sector Data Standard we collaborated with Partnership for Young London and London Youth to better understand the continuing impacts of Covid-19 on the London youth sector.
The London Data Standard is a set of standard questions designed specifically for organisations working with and for young people in London. The survey ran over November and December last year, and we received 122 responses.
Towards the end of 2020, the focus of the pandemic had not yet returned to London, and the new strain of the virus had not yet been identified. In that context, more than half of organisations reported stable finances with three-quarters having reserves equal to three months running costs. Half of all responding organisations thought the risk to their reserves was “medium”. Of more concern is that 14 organisations responded saying that they would not be able to meet operational costs within three months, similar to the national picture in our last nationwide survey in late summer 2020.
Two-thirds of surveyed organisations were operating with only half their paid staff, with others absent either through the government’s furlough scheme or because of the virus itself. Almost all organisations had reduced volunteer capacity, with two-thirds losing half their volunteer capacity. One third forecasted having to make redundancies within the next 12 months. At the time of the survey, all or most provision had been paused or stopped by a third of organisations, another third had paused half their provision with little reduction to provision for the remaining third.
All organisations reported being able to reach fewer young people with half reaching only half of their pre-pandemic cohorts. Using this sample of respondents, 18,000 fewer young people are being reached in London. Similar to our national data standard surveys of 2020, the primary support priorities were responding to mental health difficulties and anxiety amongst isolated or marginalised young people and meeting practitioners’ own, and their families’ basic needs.
We’re continuing to work with partners in London to interpret and build on these findings, and are also working through the Data Collective, supported by the Catalyst, to consider the implications for open data standards across the sector nationally.
Understanding quality in relationships with young people
High quality relationships between young people and trusted adults are invaluable for young people’s development. This is particularly true right now, as youth providers are having to adapt how they interact with young people but retain the golden threads of trust and communication. So how do we know if our relationships are ‘high quality’?
With support from City Bridge Trust, the Centre has the opportunity to work with a cohort of youth organisations based in London to deepen understanding of evaluating the quality of relationships between staff and young people.This opportunity includes access to free training and one-to-one coaching to help organisations improve their evaluation practice.
This is an opportunity to:
- Develop your evaluation knowledge and practice including training on theory of change, evaluation planning, and data analysis
- Receive one-to-one coaching to support the development of your theory of change and evaluation plan
- Work with a cohort of peers from across the youth sector to explore how relationships can be better evaluated, understood, and attended to.
For more information about the activities involved and to access the registration form, please visit our website. Registration for this cohort is open and will close on the 25 January.
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Our Thoughts
In this section of the newsletter, our team members set out what’s currently occupying their thoughts. This month, Mary McKaskill, Research and Methods Lead, contemplates the question: ‘How can we best advance engagement meaningful engagement with evidence when acceptance of evidence is optional?’
Spoiler alert: I don’t have an answer to this question, but it’s something that’s been weighing heavy on my mind and I think should be examined within the evaluation field.
Engaging with and accepting evidence – of any type - isn’t always easy, particularly when it doesn’t fully align with what we believe or feel to be true. It requires curiosity and humility: an intellectual flexibility that allows one’s assumptions to be challenged and one’s mind changed – and enthusiastically, not begrudgingly! This kind of relationship with evidence respects the scientific process, specialism and expertise, and requires claims to be verifiable by passing through various hoops of scrutiny. I’ve found it troubling to watch it become increasingly mainstream for accepting and meaningfully engaging with evidence to be ‘optional’.
In many circumstances, evidence has been repositioned to sit on par with opinion. Rational discussions are difficult to have as everyone feels entitled to hold and defend their opinions, even when they are baseless at worst, or intuition at best. Emotions run high and common ground is incredibly challenging to find when either side of the argument is able to expand without the ‘anchor evidence’ keeping the discussion grounded.
Mary’s full thoughts can be found on our website.
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What we're reading
The Power of Youth Voice in Data Conversations by Stephanie Mui is a concise and helpful reflection on bringing young people into evaluation cycles, including a few key lessons learned and some top tips and resources. If you’ve not come across the American Evaluation Association’s 365 ‘a tip-a-day for and by evaluators’, we recommend visiting the blog or subscribing for short but thoughtful daily pieces such as this one. For more information on participatory evaluation, we also recommend checking out this overview from BetterEvaluation.
Youthlink Scotland has been running a really helpful series of webinars on online youth work. Each session lasts for 30-45 minutes, and includes a presentation and group discussions where youth work practitioners can share their use of different platforms and/or address current issues that attendees are experiencing. The next session is taking place on 26 January, from 1pm to 2.30pm, and focuses on ‘Doing Digital Youth Work better and better’. Online bookings will be available soon using the link above, where you can also catch-up on the nine webinars that have already taken place.
The Digital Catalyst has shared a review of the most common digital problems that they have seen being faced by charities in recent times, along with an overview of how they plan to address them. This covers referrals, sending notifications, effective search functions on websites, and resource hubs. They are also looking at a number of other common things that charities want to do, which are more focused on building skills and knowledge and do not tend themselves to a technological solution; for example, setting up a community, an eLearning platform, or sharing information with those at risk of digital exclusion. Find out more about this project, and how to stay updated on its findings, here.
Reflecting on Actions for Equity in 2021 and Beyond, Chicago Beyond featured several key readings and resources in their recent newsletter. Firstly, leaders of Chicago Beyond and the Public Welfare Foundation, Liz Dozier and Candice Jones, came together to share actionable steps that the philanthropic sector can take in order for Black-led giving to sustain, rather than remain a passing trend. The article highlights how long-term support for Black-led social organisations needs to be accompanied by reorientation of the philanthropic sector more widely. Key steps include prioritising support for local organisations who are best placed to identify and address specific community needs, recognising the structural barriers that lie within philanthropy and being prepared and ready to reimagine leadership, including supporting emerging leaders, and increasing diversity among research teams.
Chicago Beyond has also been running a four-part series with cross-sector leaders, focused on unpacking and reflecting on what it means to be anti-racist. You can find videos and blog recaps, along with toolkits full of resources to guide and support your own journey to unpack these issues, here. The fourth and most recent installment of Unpacking features Alicia Garza, Co-Founder of the Black Lives Matter Global Network, to discuss her new book and guide to transformative movements, The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart. Watch and read a recap of the discussion here.
The Engine Room, a non-profit that supports other non-profit organisations, activists, and change-makers to make the most of data and technology, is starting a new research project in collaboration with UNICEF, to assess the use of predictive analytics (using data to make predictions about future or otherwise unknown events) for children. The team will be looking to use established human rights, data ethics and Responsible Data for Children principles to create guidelines around the responsible development, application and evaluation of predictive analytics on children. Find out more here.
Rapid-Cycle Design Testing: What, Why, and How? from Dartington Service Design Lab explores how rapid-cycle testing can be used to help organisations to access timely data, to understand if adaptations and innovations are working out as they expected or if they need to change again. Drawing on a number of years of supporting organisations to implement rapid-cycle design, and three case studies, this report helpfully breaks the method down into detailed steps. It also reflects on what it takes to implement rapid-cycle design and testing with external support, and what would be required to deliver this method ‘in-house’.
Finally, The Children’s Society recently published their Good Childhood Report for 2020, which offers a comprehensive study of children and young people’s wellbeing. Read a summary here and access the full report here.
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