How to approach measuring the impact of your Intergenerational project. This is a fast-paced session designed to offer practical tools to map the impact of your work. Topics covered will include stakeholder mapping, theory of change and choosing useful indicators to understand how your work makes a difference in your local community.

1. MEASURING
IMAPCT
D R A L I S O M E R S
G W T A N N U A L C O N F E R E N C E M A R C H 2 0 2 0

2. HOW DO WE GO FROM THIS…

3. TO THIS…?

4. OR THIS?

5. 90 MINUTE WORKSHOP
This morning we will cover:
• How to approach measuring the impact of your IG project
• Share our experiences with one another to see what works for us
and what doesn’t
• Walk out with a plan for each of you to go and begin!
• First- show of hands- who here does any sort of impact measurement
or evaluation?
• Differences between concepts of “evaluation” and “impact
measurement”
• We will work individually and in small peer groups
• See if we can begin to build a sample format for GWT members to
use

6. GWT SURVEY FEEDBACK
FROM IG PROJECTS:
99 members ranked the following tools as
most to least useful:
1) Stories
2) Case studies
3) ‘How to” guides
4) Videos
5) Statistics
6) Photographs
**What is it about story-telling
that seems most effective when
engaging in IG projects?

7. WHAT GWT MEMBERS WANTED
HELP TO LEARN MORE ABOUT…
• Evidence gathering and assessment systems that are approachable for
hard to reach participants and are part of the process and not add-ons
and literature based. We are likely often to be working with people for
whom reading isn’t yet possible, or for whom literacy is an issue or
barrier.
• Everything!
• How to evidence correctly for outside agencies.
• How to tap into specific training locally.
• Support with funding applications, Mentors, Research to support, Policy
and procedures.
• Benefits for older and younger people, stats to help promote and
encourage those who are unsure, more stories of work that has
happened.
• What others are doing.

8. MORE FEEDBACK…
• How participating in intergenerational projects have impacted financial, health
and well-being of participants lives.
• Sample case studies from groups or typical questionnaires used through inter-
generational work.
• How I can best evidence my work to make sure it is worthwhile and making
an impact as I think it is.
• Long term impact on health and well-being – individuals and communities.
• Best ways to gather evidence.
• Any tools for capturing and measuring impact.
• I think from recent TV programmes covering research in this area, it has been
vital to be able to assess the impact for elderly people by measuring
physical/mental baselines. I continue to look for meaningful ways to measure
impact on children, however this can be challenging to report in a statistical
manner: this would be beneficial to encourage researchers to follow up.

9. LET US BEGIN TO MAKE OUR
STORIES…
• On a piece of paper, make three columns.
• Next, write down what the purpose of the IG project you are a part
of is…
• Next, make a list of the kinds of the people involved (volunteers,
specialised staff, participants of different ages)
• Next, write down what you think the mechanism of change is…Is it
the relationship building between different age groups? Is it a process
they are going through- learning a new skill? Is it an activity they are
engaged in? Describe it.

10. FIRST PAGE OF WORK
Purpose of my IG
project is…
People who
participate are…
Mechanism of
change…
Include paid and nonpaid
staff, think about how
participants get to the
project- do younger ones
depend on parents for
transport or looking after
them?
Put small and large goals
here. For example, my first
purpose is to teachYear 3
students how to print books.
My second purpose is to
provide a social space for
older people in the
community to meet…
Spend time thinking about
this- what do you think would
prevent your project from
working if you didn’t have it?
Is there a special element in
your work? An inspirational
meeting place, food,
dedicated volunteers?

11. BUILD A STAKEHOLDER MAP
Older
participants
Younger
participants
People who
support
them
People who
support
them
Wider
community
members
Wider
community
members
IG
activity
we run:
chain
reaction
Staff,
volunteers?
Anyone else?

12. SHARE YOUR WORK WITH
YOUR PEERS
• Try to walk through what you have written down with your peers
• Did it make sense and was it clear when you said it out loud?
• Were there many similarities or differences in what you listed as your
mechanisms of change? Participants?
• If we were to build a generic model for everyone to use, which parts
should we keep?

13. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE
SEEK?
• Reflecting on what we are aiming to achieve, who takes part, and what
activities we do together, what information do we feel we need to tell
our story well?
• What do we want to know about?
• Each person, make a list of pieces of information you are hunting
for…I will make one for all of us as a group based on your work

14. HOW CAN WE GET THIS
INFORMATION?
• First, we can ask participants to tell us themselves (methods- smiley
faces checklist, surveys, interviews, focus groups, videos, photographs).
What are the strengths and weaknesses of this?
• How can we handle groups that cannot communicate for themselves?
(too young, too old…) Observations work well, and we can ask those
who spend the most time with these groups! Parents, carers, loved
ones, teachers.
• Remember to be detectives on a hunt…
• If you aren’t interested in the information and you can’t see how it
will be useful, it is unlikely to be useful to anyone else!

15. MAKE YOUR OWN
INFORMATION MAP
What do I want to
know, and from who?
How can I get this
information? What
methods should I use?
Experiences of toddlers
and care home residents
with dementia…
Parents
Teachers
Carers
Surveys
Short interviews
Observe
interactions
Did either initiate contact
or interaction?
Nonverbal communication
Paying attention
Following instructions
Count & Describe!

16. COUNT AND SUMMARISE
• Pull all of this information together.
• You now have the framework for your own storytelling
• Map your project objectives, who participates, what creates change
• Map your stakeholders and how the change you are putting into place
ripples out in your community
• Decide what you want to know and determine how you can find it
out in a sensible and meaningful way
• Pull all of this together and share your story with your stakeholders
• Well done!