Quote from Flourishing Lives on June 4, 2018, 2:29 pm

For our Capturing Success workshop, we were delighted to be joined by Dr Karen Gray from the University of Worcester. Karen is currently engaged in doctoral research into the methodological challenges involved in the evaluation of arts-based activities for people affected by dementia.

Karen launched her presentation with a quote that set the tone for the rest of the session: “Evaluation is an investment in people and in progress” (Guba, E. & Lincoln, Y. (1989). Fourth generation evaluation). With this uplifting thought in mind, we started by considering what made evidence useful and examining the evaluation cycle, which unpicks the stages of reporting.

From there, Karen then defined what is meant by outcomes, particularly in funding terms. Outcomes often seem to be one of the major pain points in the process, so it was really useful to gain clarity on how to develop them, the spectrum of areas they can cover, and the need for measurables.

Finally, we looked at Theory of Change and the primary and intermediate outcome tools that can be used to support this and tell the story of the change our projects make.

Karen has very kindly shared the resources and supplementary material from this brilliant and inspiring workshop (see below).

Please do share any ideas or reflections on the session here and many thanks again to Karen!

• Creative and Credible, for more information on evaluating arts and health projects: http://creativeandcredible.co.uk/. The course will also be running at the Royal Society for Public Health in January 2019: https://www.rsph.org.uk/event/introduction-to-creative-and-credible.html
• Creative Health: The Arts for Health and Wellbeing, link to the report led by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing: http://www.artshealthandwellbeing.org.uk/appg-inquiry/
• Google Scholar, for finding existing research in your project area: https://scholar.google.co.uk/
• During the feedback after the networking session Helena (London Bubble) also mentioned training delivered by Narativ who specialise in storytelling. Here is a link to upcoming training from them which is more geared towards a personal story but gives a sense of their strucutre: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/one-day-listening-personal-storytelling-workshop-may-24th-2018-tickets-45023006023