Community Inclusion Standard Best Practice Guide

Step 9: Learning & Impact

Project’s methodology, rationale and purpose of participation, as well as the rationale and evidence base for final decision-making should be transparent from the outset. Regular reviews should be undertaken to assess progress, and shared learning opportunities should be promoted.

Step 9: Learning & Impact
Photo by Jordan McDonald / Unsplash

Embed evaluation, learning and impact

Project’s methodology, rationale and purpose of participation, as well as the rationale and evidence base for final decision-making should be transparent from the outset.
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Regular reviews should be undertaken to assess progress, and shared learning opportunities should be promoted.

Questions for Project Leads

  • How will the process be shared with the community and stakeholders
  • What will success look like for you?
  • How does the community define success?
  • What qualitative and quantitative data will be captured throughout the process?
  • Do you have appropriate permissions in place to contact the community for feedback and use any data they provide?

Suggested Actions

  • Consider monitoring and evaluation measures of community engagement and of delivery of any agreed social impact outcomes.
  • Determine initial community baselines and follow-up measures of engagement with appropriate frameworks/metrics.
  • Evidence wider economic impacts where possible (e.g. number of jobs brought to the area).
  • Utilise and evidence best practice frameworks.
  • Share progress reports, highlighting social impacts delivered by the project.

Example Evidencing Measures

  • Impact measures identified by the project and the community
  • Baseline surveys undertaken at intervals
  • Peer interviews from the community
  • Evaluation and learning sessions hosted by the project and attended by the community

Wellbeing Web

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A wellbeing web is a simple tool used to capture an individuals’ feeling towards project outcomes.

The web would be used multiple times through the life of a project, producing a visual of outcomes which have shifted either positively or negatively. Desired outcomes are translated into appropriate statements which are then graded on a scale of 1-10 by the participant and marked on the web.

Example below (source - Deciding Matters):

Please use the web above to mark how much you agree or disagree with the corresponding statements: 1 = strongly disagree 10 = strong agree

Community Inclusion Standard Best Practice Guide by Nature Finance Certification Alliance thanks to leading authors Deciding Matters is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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