Telephone: 020 3475 2580 | Email: info@wsacommunity.co.uk
Evaluation and Research Projects
Our broad background in community development and related areas has enabled us to deliver informed, independent evaluation and research at local and national scale. We regularly use a Theory of Change framework to plan and support communities and groups around evaluation.
The case studies featured here highlight just some of the WSA Community projects where we worked with communities and clients to support them in measuring change.
Gathering experiences of peer support in the perinatal period
Evaluating learning through journals, focus groups and interviews
WSA Community evaluated the learning from a wonderful project that focussed on connecting parents through peer support, music and wellbeing. This project included the Lullaby Project, where parents work alongside professional musicians to create a personal lullaby for their baby, and specialist peer support for black and ethnic minority parents through the creation of community networks.
Working with Parents 1st UK, B3 (Bumps, Birth and Belonging) CIC and Live Music Now, we produced a Theory of Change framework containing clear outcomes or changes. We then created a range of opportunities for people to share the difference the project had made for them.
Some musicians and peer supporters wrote reflective diaries, while parents and grandparents participated in small focus groups and interviews. We conducted interviews with musicians, peer supporters and partners to really capture the changes. While working to identify key learnings, we loved hearing everyone’s beautiful lullabies.
We know that partners will find capturing the changes useful, since this supports funding going forward. The evaluation also supports project learning and reflection. One aspect the evaluation report highlighted is the value of solid relationships and trust between partners, which benefits parents and families moving forward.
Bringing together stakeholders with the Mindfulness in Schools Project
Facilitating the co-design of a Theory of Change for the Warrington Peace in Mind Programme
WSA Community facilitated a co-design process to produce a Theory of Change for the Warrington Peace in Mind Programme, which works to bring mindfulness to every school in Warrington.
We feel very privileged to have worked with the Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) on this project, as well as the Brianna Ghey Legacy Project, which actively campaigns to introduce mindfulness to every school in Warrington.
The co-design process involved interviewing school students in three schools in Warrington (to ground the work in need), interviewing experts in mindfulness, school-based approaches or Warrington community needs, and bringing together a range of local people eager to create change. Together, they explored the positive changes needed to make a difference for the children and young people of Warrington.
We produced a visual Theory of Change that the project can use to help measure change and campaign for more funding in the future.
Evaluating the Everyone’s Business campaign
Evidencing the impact of a campaign to increase the level of Perinatal Mental Health specialist support across the UK
WSA Community facilitated members of the Maternal Mental Health Alliance around the development and review of a Theory of Change for the Everyone’s Business Campaign. This helped to track outcomes achieved over time as part of an ongoing evaluation of the Campaign.
After working with the Maternal Mental Health Alliance (MMHA) for a decade, our final evaluation focused on the Everyone’s Business campaign, which ran between 2016 and 2021. This campaign focused on increasing the level of perinatal mental health specialist support across the UK and ensuring equitable access to services wherever people live.
Alongside a secondary data review, our fieldwork included individual and group interviews, case studies and a facilitated focus group informed by lived experience. Through this, we evidenced MMHA’s growth over the 10 years since it launched. During this time, MMHA transformed from a small group of people who had experienced perinatal mental health, or worked in the field, to become a thriving organisation that brought together over 90 membership organisations.
Our evaluation showed that the campaign had plenty to be proud of, including achieving additional funding for specialist services across the UK. Since then, MMHA has carried on championing work to address inequalities in thie space.