Impact Award Winners

It was incredibly satisfying to see that two years of behind the scenes work with YMCA North Tyneside was recognised with the scooping of a prestigious award! At a swanky dinner in London the charity bagged the 2019 Charity Governance Award in the Improving Impact category.

Since 2017 Goodlabs had been working with the charity leading on the development of a sophisticated strengths-based impact framework enabling staff to target and tailor interventions for service users. The framework enabled young people, especially those in YMCA accommodation, to be supported over time using a simple assessment tool, embedded in a CRM, offering real-time insights and enabling learning and improvement.

The ‘Strengths Framework’ is rooted in an asset-based philosophy that refuses to allow people to be ‘defined by their deficits’. It is about ‘what is strong, not what is wrong’. Working this way gives young people the best possible opportunity to overcome the difficult start they’ve had in life in order to transition to a brighter future.

Find out more here

Assessing the Impact of Skateboarding!

Skateboarding occupies a substantial niche within the broader sporting landscape. Data shows that over 50,000 people in England regularly participate. It is also recognised that Skateboarding exerts an even larger cultural influence through fashion, media and video games. At Toyko 2020 it will debut as an Olympic Sport.

Against this backdrop Goodlabs is excited to have been appointed to undertake an Impact Assessment on behalf of one of Britain’s most iconic Skateboarding facilities, a social enterprise located in Manchester. Over more than a decade Projekts MCR aka ‘The Pumpcage’ has grown a large and diverse community of enthusiasts who together make around 20,000 visits per year. All are welcome, young and old, male and female, beginners and advanced.

Starting with the obvious health impacts of regular physical exercise our Impact Assessment will also consider the impact upon the mental and emotional wellbeing of participants, the benefits of belonging to a supportive community, the impacts of the associated school-outreach programme, and the economic benefits to Manchester of the thousands of visitors who flock to the park from far and wide.

The Impact Assessment work forms part of a £320,000 investment plan to upgrade and extend the facility, securing its future for at least another 10 years.

The Sport Relief video below narrated by Tom Daley explains just a little of what makes Projekts so special...

Empowering Places

Goodlabs is delighted to have joined the Approved Provider pool for the Empowering Places programme from Power to Change. We will be offering consultancy support in the areas of Impact Management, Stakeholder Engagement and Advocacy. 

A Big Lottery-funded programme, Empowering Places has been developed in order to offer local organisations strategic support and resources that will empower local groups to grow community businesses, working towards a vision of transformed places.

Power to Change works to build ‘better places through community business.’ Through their partnership working around Britain they demonstrate that community businesses revive local assets, protect the services people rely on, and address local needs. The strategic delivery partners working with Power to Change to deliver the Empowering Places programme are Co-operatives UK, the New Economics Foundation and CLES (Centre for Local Economic Strategies).

Strategic CSR review for Muckle LLP

Click to download reflection paper "The ABC of CSR".

Goodlabs were recently engaged by leading North East commercial law firm Muckle LLP to undertake a strategic review of their Corporate Social Responsibility. The company, headquartered in Newcastle, is already widely recognised for its achievements in CSR and it so speaks of the ambitions of the senior partners that they are determined to make an even bigger social impact in the years ahead. 

The strategic review considered the full breadth of activity being undertaken by the firm  - from operating its own philanthropic foundation, through to pro-bono legal support to grassroots charities, its strong environmental agenda, a commitment to the flourishing of local schools and releasing staff for 'community days'.  

In its final 12,000 word report Goodlabs commended the firm's Ambition, Breadth and Consistency. A wide range of recommendations were made to the partners all designed to answer the question: 

"How can more people’s lives change for the better because Muckle is a law firm that leads the way in CSR?”

Upon receiving the final report senior partner Hugh Welch commented:  

"The depth of analysis and thought in the overall report were really quite exceptional. It has been of immeasurable benefit to us and I am hugely grateful to Goodlabs for a remarkable piece of work.”

A short reflection paper summarising the learning from the review can be downloaded by clicking here.

Wallsend Children's Community

Project lead Wayne Daley with pupils of Churchill Community College Wallsend promoting the community survey in the local press.

Goodlabs was delighted to be appointed to undertake an important piece of community research on behalf of Wallsend Children's Community - an exciting new partnership with Save the Children. The project belongs to a wider network of Children's Communities around the country inspired by the highly successful 'Harlem Children's Zone' model.  

Still in its early stages the leadership team at Wallsend Children's Community required insights into the 'Attitudes, Behaviours and Capacity' of residents, particularly with respect to volunteering. The target post code of NE28 consists of five electoral wards and around 20,000 households.  

The survey, branded 'Great NE28' received coverage in the local press and revealed valuable findings including: 

• A large proportion of residents are involved in either volunteering, or giving unpaid help to someone (child, older person or someone with a disability).

• A larger than expected group of those surveyed reported that they would consider volunteering locally if asked.

• Almost everyone: Admires those who give some of their time to helping others; Believes that volunteering is good for the person doing the helping, as well as those being helped; Believes that a strong community is a place where everyone helps each other.

• A small minority: Believe that It is important to help your family and friends but it should end there; Don’t see why people volunteer, i.e if it takes time and effort you should get paid. 

The Enterprise Village - Tees Valley

Architect's impression of the new facility.

Low productivity is one of the major economic challenges facing the UK, and raising it is an issue that requires innovative collaborations between the public, private and charity sectors. The Enterprise Village, to be located on south side of Stockton-on-Tees, is gearing up to address the challenge with an exciting new approach.

Goodlabs are supporting the team at Tees Valley Community Projects to build on their prior success in providing accredited training, delivering children's work, youth work, family work and wellbeing services. The Enterprise Village will transform the lives of thousands of Tees Valley residents through developing economic and social potential side by side in a uniquely resourced location.

It will be a collaborative community within which local entrepreneurs grow their businesses parallel to disengaged young adults taking significant steps towards entering the regional workforce. Others who have experienced major interruptions to their career through redundancy and illness will be retrained and upskilled.

The Enterprise Village will be strategically located off the A66 in Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees, adjacent to The Oakwood Centre – home of Tees Valley Community Church. It will be an attractive energy-efficient campus of workshops, serviced office space, training rooms, event facilities and community wellbeing services. Instead of the hard-edged formality that is a feature of large scale business and educational facilities the Village will emphasise accessibility and an atmosphere  of hope, opportunity and collaboration.

Goodlabs is supporting the development of the detailed research case and business planning required to underpin the £4.5 million fundraising target. We secured £72,000 of investment-readiness funding for the charity in order to support this work. 

Architectural visualisation above provided courtesy of Grace Choi Architecture.