Launching the "Rugby+" framework

Launching Rugby+ at Kingston Park, Newcastle

It was fantastic to be at Kingston Park this week, home of the Newcastle Falcons Rugby Union and Newcastle Thunder Rugby League teams.

We were there for the official launch of the new Rugby+ framework, which we've been supporting the Newcastle Rugby Foundation to develop over the course of the year. There was incredible buzz in the venue from around a hundred specially invited guests as we listened to stories of how the foundation is making an impact in people’s lives.

Enhancing Impact is at the heart of everything we do at Goodlabs and we’ve been thrilled to be able to walk a journey with NRF as they have sought to more clearly articulate the difference they make. A big part of impact management being really clear about the change you want to achieve in people’s lives, then working back from this to ensure that you have all the necessary links in the chain to make it happen.

We produced a new theory of change for the foundation, linked to a detailed Outcomes Framework containing a range of bespoke indicators to enable the tracking of participant progress over time. Time was taken to make sure this framework could be embedded in the CRM system that the foundation uses (Upshot) as well as training key members of staff in how to use a number of new/updated digital evidence collection tools.

By organising the new framework into four headline themes, linking in to the Rugby+ branding, we ensured that the new ideas become ‘sticky’ within the team, and can be easily communicated to stakeholders. (see graphic below) It was great to have the chance to collaborate with marketing agency Cravens to develop and finesse the language used in the model.

Good luck to all the team as you step up your activities in the months ahead :-)

The four impact themes in the new Rugby+ framework

The Life and Soul of the Community

Creating community in New Lubbesthorpe

Evaluation of Lubbesthorpe Alive

Goodlabs has just completed a fascinating evaluation project focused on a brand new community being built on a 400 hectare site on the Western edge of Leicester.

New Lubbesthorpe is, in construction development terms, an Urban Extension. More recently the literature around Urban Extensions has begun to evolve to give greater acknowledgement to social and environmental concerns, alongside physical infrastructure requirements. This is very much the aspiration for developments like New Lubbesthorpe. The language is therefore evolving with the emergence of a new term: ‘Sustainable Urban Extension’.

Our task was to look back at the effect of a pioneering six-year project designed to accelerate the growth of real local community in the new housing estate. The new community was the vision of local landowner Fred Drummond. Mr Drummond, spoke of building a vibrant community on his 1000 acre (400 hectare) site. It would be a place that people would want to live, work, learn and play. Mr Drummond sadly died before he was able to see his dream become a reality but the Drummond Trust continue his legacy. Vital to the new community’s connection to the city of Leicester is a new road bridge over the busy M1 motorway. At its official opening the bridge was Christened “Fred's bridge” with engrave plaques at either end. There is also carved wooden fish in front of the Primary school as a memorial showing off his love of salmon fishing.

The lead organisation for the community development work was Churches Together in Leicestershire, which eventually developed a locally-operated nonprofit through which to operate: Lubbesthorpe Alive CIC. We found that a major contribution to the life of New Lubbesthorpe had been made, by connecting people to one another, as well as to the tapestry of places and spaces that make up their new home. 

Some of our key findings included:

• Our residents’ survey showed that a genuine sense of community has been developed. 94% agreed that New Lubbesthorpe has a strong sense of community.

• The value of making and maintaining strong partnerships. In this case with Blaby District Council, the Drummond Estate and the housebuilders (Redrow, David Wilson, Barratt).

• Sustainable communities require key people and amenities to serve as the glue that bonds communities together. The promotion and facilitation of social interaction substantially enhances quality of life for residents.

• New models of seasonal celebration have been important. Events marking festivals and seasons became important in the life and rhythm of the community. Demand has risen and crowds have got bigger. A culture of connection around these shared markers of the year is emerging.

• Special concern and responsiveness must be shown to residents of new social housing units. A construction sector professional commented, "Our industry can be quite poor at anticipating the issues that tenants can bring to the community".

If you have a project that requires an external evaluation drop us a line to arrange a chat about it. Email: impact@goodlabs.uk

Engaging Stakeholders on Purpose

Photo credit: Wokandapix at Pixabay.com

It’s been great to have the opportunity to work with Action Foundation again, this time supporting their new CEO to take a fresh look at the charity’s Purpose.

Transitions can be challenging times for organisations but Newcastle-based refugee and asylum support charity Action Foundation have been handling the handover of their senior leader extremely well. Looking to the long term their new CEO felt it important to take a fresh look at the way the vision and mission of the charity are understood and articulated. Via our mutual friends at Lloyds Bank Foundation we got together to consider what this process might mean.

It became apparent that having separate vision and mission statements wasn’t necessarily helping strategic clarity. At Goodlabs we’re seeing more and more of our clients opting for a single, powerful statement of Purpose. Once it was agreed that this was the destination the task was - how to get there?

Goodlabs were tasked with designing a Stakeholder Lab format that would engage staff, volunteers and service users in exercises designed to generate and refine the key ideas that form the essence of the charity. The Labs would be repeated up to a dozen times over a one month period with groups in Newcastle and Sunderland, as well as online. Probably the biggest challenge was with language, as for many participants English wasn’t their mother tongue. Hats off to the team we worked with who ensured that everyone present was able to fully engage and offer meaningful contributions.

Following successful delivery of the schedule of Labs we supplied an insights report summarising the key ideas that emerged and setting up the SLT for the remaining in-house task of wordsmithing their final statement.

“Wonderfully helpful” was the feedback received from the client.

We’re happy with that :-)

Helping law firm shift from CSR to ESG

Graph showing growing use of ESG through relative popularity of Google searches for “CSR” vs “ESG” (UK)

It’s great to be working once again with our friends at leading North East law firm Muckle LLP. On this occasion they’ve asked for our help with the development of their new Responsible Business Strategy - a subset of their overall Corporate Strategy which is currently going through an update.

When it comes to developing strategy the overall framing of the narrative is really important. The core elements of the strategy - its objectives and goals - need to fit together in a cohesive whole that makes sense to all stakeholders. In the past Muckle, like many businesses, has tended to talk about CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility. However, within the new strategy, ESG offers a more helpful grid. For those unfamiliar with ESG, it stands for Environmental, Social and Governance, and is borrowed from the world of ethical investing. ESG can also be understood as three complementary pillars of value. The chart above, using Google searches as a proxy for interest, shows the way that ESG is rising in popularity vs CSR.

Muckle are always a great client to work for as they really do walk the talk. Their efforts in the arena of responsible business are long-standing and class-leading. Understandably, we’re excited to be able to help them to maintain and develop their position of leadership long into the future. This will involve re-stating a range of strategic ambitions from net zero targets, through to charitable giving from profits, expanding employee volunteering schemes and undertaking a greater volume of pro bono work. And a great deal more besides.

Commenting on our work Senior Partner Hugh Welch said:

We’ve twice used Matt to help us with the development of our CSR and, more latterly, ESG plans. On each occasion, the insights and knowledge that he has brought and the advice and direction that he has given us have simply been invaluable. There’s no doubt in my mind that our ESG programme is vastly better as a result of all the help he has given us.

If you aren’t familiar with Muckle and how they do business, take a look here.

Powering VODA's Impact with Salesforce

Through the Power Of Us program charities can access 10 free Salesforce user licences, worth around £3000.

Having worked with third sector infrastructure body VODA on several projects previously we’ve developed a good understanding of their needs. When they recently approached us for support in figuring out the best way to manage the application process for a substantial new grants fund we immediately knew of the perfect solution…

2021 was the year in which Goodlabs took its work on the Salesforce platform to a whole new level, completing several implementations for charities of different shapes and sizes. In each case we supported the client through the process of registering and successfully gaining approval for free Salesforce user licences via the ‘Power Of Us’ programme. Through this scheme Salesforce.org generously provides access to a full Enterprise Edition of the Salesforce CRM platform.

That’s full access to the world’s #1 CRM product, for free!

Of course, as a highly complex database product, Salesforce isn’t an out-of-the-box solution. That’s why Goodlabs has spent hundreds of hours developing a bespoke solution for the non-profit sector that simplifies the system with a focus on making available its most powerful functionality through the Salesforce ‘Lightning’ user interface.

On this project we were pleased to work for the first time with Advanz101, a registered Salesforce consulting partner with offices in the USA and India. They provided some next-level ninja skills to automate elements of the grant application process, increasing efficiency by removing the need for manual eligibility checks and notification emails. Thanks to the team for their great work!

PS - If you’re still faffing around trying to manage your charity using spreadsheets and would like to look into moving to the Salesforce platform drop us a line on salesforce@goodlabs.uk

Making an impact with IMO in Blackburn

“Inspire, Motivate, Overcome” - they are the driving principles of the Inter Madrassah Organisation in Blackburn.

The charity, originally founded by a small but very committed group of local volunteers has grown rapidly now and now reaches thousands of local people every year with a range of support and activities. IMO has particular expertise in working with young people and families mainly of BAME heritage, facing multiple disadvantages.

Goodlabs was introduced to the charity as part of our work supporting the Lloyds Bank Foundation ‘Enhance’ programme. Having scaled up their operation substantially in response to local need that emerged during the coronavirus pandemic IMO are keen to explore how to more systematically embed impact management into their organisation at both the strategic and operational level. A new outcomes framework is being developed, to be embedded into their CRM system and aligned with frontline evidence-gathering tools.

The photo above shows members of the core team at a recent ‘Impact Lab’ facilitated by Goodlabs at the Eanam Wharf Business Centre in Blackburn.

East London Churches' Community Impact

During the coronavirus pandemic everyone’s life was disrupted… shops, offices, schools, and also places of worship. In this fascinating project Goodlabs were asked to produce an external evaluation of the work of a grop of churches in East London as they mobilised members to support their local communities.

“Organising For Growth” is an initiative of the Centre for Theology and Community, an organisation well-known for its work in the arena of community organising and social enterprise development. The CTC has been part of highly effective campaigns to secure the Living Wage for local cleaners, and even launched its own ethical cleaning company, Clean For Good.

Whilst the launch of “Organising For Growth” in late 2019 meant that its first year was more than a little turbulent we found an extremely impressive range of community-oriented activities had taken place, even under lockdown. Of particular note was the way in which clergy had enabled lay members of their congregations to grow in their leadership by taking responsibility for important community campaigns and programmes.

Our interim evaluation was published earlier this month. We will continue to journey with the project through 2022 producing our final evaluation in early 2023.

Supporting Oasis Housing's Vision for Enterprise

Oasis Community Housing are widely respected for the compassionate and consistent support they offer to people experiencing homelessness. With deep roots in the North East, as well as projects around London, they are constantly striving to improve lives. Goodlabs were invited to tender to support the charity in an exciting social enterprise feasibility project, and were delighted to win the work.

Like all charities OCH exists in a challenging funding environment and in order to ensure its long-term sustainability must spread risk by operating a mixed-income model combining both fundraising and revenue-generation. Our feasibility study needed to account for dual objectives of generating unrestricted income as well as delivering social value and employability progression for those the charity serves. In order to deliver on the objectives of the work Goodlabs brought on board Jessie Joe Jacobs as an associate consultant. As a prior winner of the Sunday Times Social Entrepreneur of the Year award Jessie brought important insight and know-how to the project.

The project proceeded in three phases, firstly exploring a wide range of opportunities that OCH might want to consider, then narrowing down to a smaller range of options to evaluate in more detail, before finally working up costed business plans for two new social enterprises.

We look forward to continuing to advise the charity as they secure the necessary start up funding and begin to push ahead with the plans.

Making the light even brighter in Sunderland

We’re delighted to have commenced a new impact project with the Foundation of Light, the official charitable foundation of Sunderland Football Club.

The Foundation has its home in the world-class ‘Beacon of Light’ community sports facility that stands prominently alongside the Stadium of Light in Sunderland. A wide range of programmes are offered at the Beacon opening up access to football alongside a vast array of other activities designed to support healthy development in all aspects of life. However, impressive as it is, there’s far more to the Foundation that just the work that happens at the Beacon site. Teams of foundation staff are also out and about around the area seven days a week, delivering programmes in schools and in the community.

Goodlabs is supporting the Foundation with a strategic piece of work to make an even bigger impact in the years ahead. We’re working with staff from senior leaders through to frontline delivery in order to align and embed the impact ambitions of the Foundation’s new strategic plan. Backed by an array of funders and stakeholders including key partners such as the Premier League Charitable Fund there is huge opportunity. The challenge is to empower every single member of the team to evidence the difference they’re making clearly and consistently. It’s about making impact everyone’s business. It’s a vital task that we’re so pleased to be able to support with.

Researching The Impact of Hearing Loss

Goodlabs have been supporting the development of Tyneside-based charity Deaflink for the last year or so as part of a package of Lottery-funded support. The first phase of our work involved looking at how Deaflink could support local hospitals to better serve the needs of users of British Sign Language. In this next phase we shift focus to the issue of Hearing Loss.

The prevalence of Hearing Loss is reasonably well-known, affecting some 87,000 people in the Newcastle-Gateshead CCG region*. What is less well-known is how those experiencing Hearing Loss feel about it, especially here in the North East. This is where we hope to be able to shed some new light, bringing to the fore a range of authentic accounts of the challenges experienced, as well as the things that help.

*18-70 age group, hearing loss range of 25 - 64 dBHL

The Win, Win, Win

This month Goodlabs facilitated a virtual event with forward-thinking businesses to discuss the way that Covid-19 has transformed Employee Volunteering. The event was the culmination of a piece of research work that Goodlabs has been undertaking for VODA. Special guests from EE, Newcastle Building Society, Greggs and many others joined the conversation which was kindly chaired by Karen Goldfinch of North Tyneside Business Forum.

Regional VCS infrastructure organisation VODA had responded rapidly to the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic by working alongside the local council to launch a support hub for vulnerable residents. The support offered was human-centred and practical in nature, simply known as: Good Neighbours. With volunteering at its heart the hub introduced VODA to hundreds of new volunteers, many adjusting to working from home rather than in shared offices. As the first lockdown relaxed VODA asked Goodlabs to lead a learning project to highlight the key ways in which impact had been made.

Thousands of vulnerable and isolated people received absolutely essential support through the work of the hub. Food parcels and vital medicines were delivered to those who could not leave their homes. However, one of the most interesting findings related to the volunteers themselves, especially to those volunteers adjusting to remote rather than office working. We found that:

1. Remote workers universally appreciated the opportunity to break up their working day by undertaking a volunteer assignment.

2. They benefitted from the social contact, which goes some way to replacing the social contact previously enjoyed at the office.

3. They have experienced ‘emotional payback’. Helping other gives an uplift in wellbeing that adds buoyancy to their working week.

We also found that these effects combined to mitigate known factors associated with working from home that are limiters on productivity. This in turn makes the experience of remote working more sustainable over the longer term. Our conclusion was therefore that a regular volunteer opportunity is therefore:

• good for the employee, WIN ✓

• good for those they support, WIN ✓

• good for the employer too. WIN ✓

A challenge was laid down to businesses to embracing a new model of employee volunteering:

• Out with the proverbial ‘teams painting sheds’. Prior models of CSR centred around large teams of staff engaging in full-day mass volunteering is called into question.

• Breaking days into hours.More flexible approaches to ‘volunteering allowances’ within HR policies appear to be the new trend and need to be adopted more widely.

Gateshead System Transformation

Gateshead Multiple & Complex Needs Initiative

Goodlabs is working with Oasis Community Housing, Collective Impact Agency and Helme Park on this important piece of work that is supported by Fulfilling Lives Newcastle & Gateshead and reporting into the Gateshead Health & Care Systems Board.

The aims of this Gateshead MCN Transformation Initiative are:

•To yield new insights into the ways in which the Gateshead system is dealing with people experiencing MCN

•To reveal where over-complexity within the system is working against the achieving of outcomes

•To highlight where innovation has enabled better outcomes for those with MCN

•To make recommendations for the rationalising of the multiple professional contexts concerned with MCN issues

•To leverage improvement within the system that will benefit both service-users and professionals

We are pleased to release our interim report which summarises our work so far giving our initial findings. It is not intended as a set of recommendations for the Gateshead system rather to stimulate discussion to inform and direct the next phase of the work. We do intend to make recommendations in our final report, due in February of 2021.

>> The interim report can be downloaded here

FEB 2021 UPDATE:

The project is now complete and the final report has been published (link below). Entitled “People at the Heart” the report is rooted in interviews, focus groups and meetings with over 100 people from across the Gateshead health and care system. This included professionals working in the public sector and the voluntary sector, as well as groups of ‘experts by experience’. The report sets out 4 priorities and links these to a set of 12 principles, linked to 12 corresponding practices. The diagram below shows the 4 priorities at the centre, surrounded by the 12 principles.

>> The final report can be downloaded here