Citizens UK
Public services need to adapt to complex and varied community needs on an ongoing basis. It’s vital, then, that community voices are directly involved in giving feedback on, and assessing the success of, public services. Anthill Collective Director and co-founder Will Bibby partnered with Citizens UK to lead a people-powered impact analysis of their Parents and Communities Together initiative, using people-centred research to bring community perspectives to light.
Client
Citizens UK
Sector
Social services
Impact measurement
Evaluation framework design
Peer-led evaluation facilitation
Our services
Project vision
Our goal was to lead a people-powered impact analysis that brings community perspectives into the heart of social support projects.
Outcomes
An impact analysis and findings report that centres the PACT community.
Our Research Director, Will Bibby, partnered with Citizens UK to lead a people-powered impact analysis of their Parents and Communities Together (PACT) initiative. Using participant-led research methods, layered with design and systems thinking, Will worked with Citizens UK to build a holistic and participant-centered analysis of the impact of PACT’s work. A key objective here was not only to assess PACT’s impact, but also to incorporate the community perspectives into the evaluation and learning processes.
Impact through inclusion
At the core of our approach was the commitment to people-powered research methods, which ensure we actively prioritize the perspectives of the communities we work with.
Designing a participatory framework
Working with the PACT team and parents, we co-designed a participatory evaluation framework. This ensured our methodologies were not just inclusive, but also empowering—giving parents significant influence over how the project's impacts were measured.
Training parent facilitators
A key innovative method was training parents from the PACT audience to become facilitators themselves. This approach turned participants into leaders, bridging the gap between researchers and the community and ensuring the impact evaluation was grounded in lived experiences.
Co-creating bilingual tools
Recognizing the diverse linguistic landscape of the PACT community, we co-designed bilingual session tools and materials. This ensured that all community members could engage fully in the process, eliminating language barriers to participation.
Facilitating storytelling and reflection
Leveraging narrative research methods, we facilitated Most Significant Change workshops where parents shared their experiences and the changes they've observed. This qualitative approach allowed us to capture deep, nuanced insights into PACT’s impact, and empowered the PACT community to map their own lived experiences of change.
Iterative design and community feedback
Through an iterative process of prototyping evaluation tools and gathering feedback from parent facilitators and participants, we continually refined our impact measurement framework and methods. This dynamic approach ensured that our tools and processes remained responsive to the community's needs.
A holistic look at impact
To make sure we touched holistically across the PACT community’s nuanced needs, we took on a systems thinking approach. This enabled us to see beyond individual components, understanding and measuring PACT’s impact across the community ecosystem.
Ecomapping PACT
We built comprehensive ecomaps of the social support ecosystem surrounding PACT parents. This included identifying key actors, services, and resources supporting parents in the community, as well as the interactions between them. By understanding these relationships, we could better understand the systemic barriers and enablers affecting parental and child outcomes.
Analyzing feedback loops
Recognizing that changes in one part of a system can reverberate out, we analyzed feedback loops across the PACT audience. This involved understanding how improved parental well-being influenced child development, and vice versa, and how these changes affected the wider community's health and connection.
Scenario planning for PACT sustainability
We engaged in scenario planning to anticipate and prepare for future changes within the community and the broader social services landscape, such as conducting workshops to explore potential shifts in funding and policy landscapes. This foresight enabled PACT to adapt its strategies proactively, ensuring long-term resilience and relevance.
Charting paths in community empowerment
Through this work with Citizens UK, Will sought to redefine community engagement through the Parents and Communities Together (PACT) project. By empowering parents to lead and evaluate, we not only fostered individual growth but also strengthened community bonds. This initiative wasn't merely about evaluating a program; it was about laying the groundwork for a more participatory, inclusive future in designing social change. These outcomes set strong frameworks for embedding empowerment and co-creation at the heart of community projects, prompting positive change across the social sector.