Orla Cronin Research Blog
Dec
Volunteer mentoring helps young adults recovering from mental illness
Our evaluation of TimeBank’s Back to Life volunteer mentoring programme for young adults indicates that this is a very valuable bridge back into society for young adults moving on formal mental health services. Read the report here.
Nov
Web 2.0 and research collaboration
Web 2.0 in the facilitation of research collaboration: A study of Web 2.0 use by researchers in developing and transitional countries, including some useful resources. Produced by the global development network, and very pertinent to delivering ‘information sharing’ goals which have been discussed in a variety of fora recently. http://cloud2.gdnet.org/cms.php?id=web2.0_study
Nov
Magic Bus M&E system
Good luck to the @MagicBusIndia M&E team, who will commence piloting the process we helped design with @thinkaqumen & streetfootballworld@sfw_tweets. The training course for internal staff starts in Hyderabad tomorrow, the questionnaire translations are hot off the press, and spirits – and adrenaline – are high!
Nov
Dutch Embassy Sport & Cohesion workshops
The next round of the @dutchembassyuk Sport and Cohesion workshops will take place in Amsterdam on the 9th November. Watch this space for the full report which will follow rapidly.
Nov
Dutch Embassy Sport and Cohesion Workshops
The @dutchembassyuk first two Sport and Cohesion workshops went swimmingly. Participants – your ‘raw’ output is available in each working group dropbox. The full report will be available after the workshops in Amsterdam next week. Thanks to @janvanweijen for the twitpic.
Nov
Crowdsourcing impact data
Elegant example of a crowdsourced impact evaluation. I guess it was only a matter of time. Having been banging on about ‘impact networks’ and crowdsourcing last week, I’ve now come across this one, which is being conducted by Global Giving http://www.globalgiving.org/stories/ A search for (space) sport (space) yielded 40 or so stories. Also has a mapping tool. Interesting approach….
Nov
Measuring & communicating impact – Laureus Global Summit
A scintillating workshop yesterday afternoon. The output of the group’s collective wisdom regarding how to make monitoring & evaluation useful is available here. Orla’s presentation of M&E canapes/tapas/thali/sushi is available here. The resource handout is here, and the InFocus presentation given by Damian Hatton (Aqumen), with input from Tom Keyte (Aqumen), Catherine (Minka) Daraspe (streetfootballworld) and Priyanka Sharma (Magic Bus) will be available shortly.
Nov
Principles of good impact reporting
Principles of good impact reporting – a timely document from New Philanthropy Capital available here.
Oct
Dutch Embassy: Sport and Cohesion working groups
OCR, on behalf of the UK Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is convening a series of working groups on sport and cohesion. More information is available here. If you are attending either the UK or the NL workshops, and have not yet completed the prework, please contact me for the links to the survey and ‘dropbox’.
Tagged | facilitation, sport for development, strategy, workshop
Oct
Laureus Global Summit workshop: Measuring and communicating impact
Delighted to be convening this session at the Laureus Global Summit in London next week. Very much looking forward to seeing some familiar faces, as well as meeting lots of new colleagues.
The handout with additional resources is here, and the presentation (or should I call that a prezi?) is here.
Tagged | facilitation, innovation, M&E, qualitative, quantitative, sport for development, training
Sep
Facilitating Participatory Strategic Planning training course 28-29 September, Manchester
Places available on ICA:UK’s Participatory Strategic Planning course next Wednesday and Thursday (28th-29th September) in Manchester. Course information and booking here
Tagged | participatory, strategy, training
Sep
Back to Life
The evaluation of Timebank’s Shoulder to Shoulder project is now underway, and we’re currently designing the evaluation for the Back to Life project.
Jul
Monitoring and evaluation system, Magic Bus
As part of a partnership including Streetfootballworld, Laureus and Aqumen Social Technologies, Orla’s heading to Magic Bus in Delhi next week to assist with the creation of a monitoring and evaluation system.
Tagged | M&E
Jul
Virtual facilitation
Participating today in a demonstration of ToP facilitation via Skype and Adobe Connect, hosted by ICA. 10 participants so far, spread across US, Taipei, Europe, Hong Kong. Very interesting.
Jun
Group facilitation training
Orla is training with ICA:UK on the Group Facilitation Methods courses in Dublin (14th & 15th June) and Limerick (16th & 17th June). There are still some heavily discounted places available on both of these courses. Contact www.ica-uk.org.uk or call 0845 450 0305 to learn more and to reserve your place.
Tagged | facilitation, training
Jun
Sport for Development Research Mapping
The mapping of Sport for Development research was presented and discussed at the UK Sport for Development network meeting hosted by UK Sport on 7th June. The presentation (a summary of the report) is available here, and the minutes and actions will be circulated presently.
Jun
Comic Relief Sport for Development Research Mapping
The Comic Relief Sport and Development Research Mapping report is now available here. This report is a sampling of the current research initiatives and approaches to monitoring and evaluation in the sector. Issues identified under the themes of problem identification, knowledge generation and knowledge use are discussed.
Tagged | M&E, review, sport for development
May
Evaluation of the Timebank/Combat Stress Shoulder to Shoulder project
We’re delighted to have been appointed evaluators of the Timebank/Combat Stress Shoulder to Shoulder project.
Mar
Sport for Development Research Review: Comic Relief
Delighted to report that OCR have been commissioned by Comic Relief to map the literature on Sport for Development and update an earlier review. This will be presented at the next UK Sport for Development network meeting in June.
Tagged | qualitative research, sport for development
Feb
Coo-L’s cool..
Spring’s in the air, lots of interesting projects on the go, and OCR/Wildcard have just delivered the Coo-Levaluation report: lots of actionable feedback for Camden Council derived via workshops, interviews and an online survey. Always a delight to work on a project where the beneficiaries are so engaged and positive.
Tagged | evaluation, interview, survey, workshop