Evaluation & Research: Supporting VCSE and Building Partnerships

Discover how research and evaluations can support Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations with capacity and evidence building. This can help with funding bids and organisational development, as well as providing meaningful opportunities to develop better links between researchers, academic institutions and the third sector.

This session is for:

• VCSE organisations;
• Researchers and academics interested in working with VCSE organisations;
• Those who want to improve their understanding of what VCSE organisations need and how to support them.

Presenters will share practical insights into what worked well, what proved challenging, and what can be learned to support the VCSE with research partnerships. The webinar will showcase experiences from:

• Paul Court, Healthworks Chief Executive – outlining what is meant by social value, why it is important, and introducing the evaluation toolkit (VALOR+) designed to support VCSE organisations in their impact.
• Dr Bronia Arnott, Voluntary Sector Evaluation Scheme pilot lead, School for Public Health Research,  on the cross-sector partnership scheme (VoySES) evaluation work undertaken within the VCSE, highlighting the benefits of research and evaluation in the VCSE sector. She will talk about support available from NIHR RSS.
• The IDEAS National Evaluation Team based at Northumbria University, and commissioned to conduct large-scale evaluations of innovations in health and social care. They will focus on an evaluation of Neighbourhood Health (NbH), and how they have worked with the VCSE sector locally and nationally.
• Newcastle Foodbank.  talking about their collaborations with Newcastle University, including their Pathways out of Hunger project, the Dentaid Dental bus to Foodbank sessions, and their Client Voices project enabling clients an input into future food and welfare security.
• Fran Morland, Research Partnerships Coordinator at VONNE, looking at how VCSE organisations and health and care researchers can receive support through the North East and North Cumbria VCSE Research Partnerships Programme, including free co-produced resources.

For more information, or if you have any queries email: [email protected]