Orla Cronin Research Blog
Apr
Sport & Development Monitoring & Evaluation Symposium
Looking forward to presenting at the Symposium on Sport & Development Monitoring & Evaluation tomorrow at Southampton Solent University. The associated reference list is available here.
Mar
M&E Moving the Goalposts
Our work for Moving the Goalposts Kilifi, funded by Laureus, was presented at UK Sports Next Step Conference. See a conference summary here and the communique with affirmations, requests and recommendations here.
Feb
Monitoring & evaluation of information literacy interventions
Took part in a delightful and stimulating M&E workshop organised by the Research Information Network on behalf of the British Library for Development studies in Centurion, South Africa. Interesting to see how M&E challenges transfer across different development sectors. Report on the progress developing an M&E toolkit for information literacy, and further details about the initiative, available here.
Feb
Research paper published
Our research paper reporting quantitative evidence for the benefits of the Moving the Goalposts programme, has been published in Evaluation and Program Planning. The research shows that members attending activities at longer established MTG leaguefields in the programme experience greater benefits in terms of positive thoughts and feelings, and that members at fields in the rural areas benefit as much from the programme as those who are near head office.
The full reference for the paper is: Woodcock, A., Cronin, Ó., Forde, S. (2012). Quantitative evidence for the benefits of Moving the Goalposts, a Sport for Development project in rural Kenya,Evaluation and Program Planning, 35(3). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014971891200002X
Feb
Quantitative data analysis training
Quantitative data analysis can be fun (and the flow of insights is induced by prodigious quantities of chocolate biscuits!) Deliciously nerdy day training/coaching the Rugby Football Foundation monitoring and evaluation team in quantitative data analysis. Elegant baseline data: itching to see the results from their follow-up survey.
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 ”sport” 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