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| Primary purpose Summary Potential benefits Who can use the tool? What resources are needed? Development, ownership and support Social enterprise examples Further sources of information Prove It! Prove It! was developed by nef in partnership with Groundwork UK and Barclays PLC to provide a method for measuring the effect of community regeneration projects on the quality of life of local people. This tool was originally conceived to help those managing neighbourhood renewal projects look beyond the physical and environmental changes that had taken place (e.g. the number of trees planted; amenities created) and be able to highlight the positive outcomes of regeneration that can often go unnoticed. Prove It! is best suited:
Prove It! seeks to make data collection itself part of the process of regeneration, with local people involved in a project’s evaluation as well as its delivery. The latest version has been designed to be manageable and possible to use within the limited resources that small-to-medium–scale projects have available to them. This ensures that evaluation becomes part of the culture of an organisation, rather than a burden. The evaluation process itself can contribute positively to the desired outcomes of the project. Update: Prove It! 'Lite' As a way to allow projects to assimilate some of the principles of effective impact evaluation practice into their day-to-day running a lighter version of Prove it! was developed. This was done in the light of feedback from a range of Groundwork and British Waterways project officers in the summer of 2004. The lighter version aims to make impact measurement manageable and possible within the limited time resources that small-to-medium–scale projects have available to them. It is made up of a series of MS Word and Excel files containing instructions for running participative workshops, designing simple questionnaires and inputting data that allow a thorough and robust exploration of a project’s impact. It is hoped that this makes it easier to take those first steps towards incorporating the principles of effective impact measurement. Download the lighter version of Prove It! here Prove It! involves using three main tools:
In addition there are notes, guidance and templates provided to assist project managers in planning the evaluation process and presenting findings. The Prove It! handbook describes the process of involving communities in agreeing on the most important issues, deciding on indicators and collecting data. It also provides the rationale for this type of participative evaluation and community engagement. The kit described below condenses much of this into a series of documents describing activities and illustrating templates, including spreadsheets, which simplify the important steps for those who may not have the time and resources to undertake the more in-depth version.
Potential limitations
Any social enterprise or organisation working on projects and initiatives involving a local community can use Prove It! It can meet the needs of regeneration and community development organisations, including development trusts. It works best with smaller projects and less well for large projects or those with no community involvement. Prove It! may also be useful for project officers from agencies, local government and other decision makers who are likely to commission evaluations of specific initiatives and use the results to inform policy decisions. Leadership Prove It! requires leadership from someone who will plan and manage its use from start to finish. This role should naturally fall to a project’s manager or someone within the organisation who can be the ‘evaluation champion’. Because evaluation is necessarily a long-term, on-going process, the champion needs to be able to take responsibility for keeping track of the evaluation with enough information on file so that someone else can continue the process if they have to move on. Of the three sections of Prove It! described above, the Poster Evaluation exercise is the only part that recommends the involvement of an outside facilitator to lead the session. This provides an opportunity for someone not directly involved in the project to review whether the findings from the evaluation make sense. Proficiencies or skills No specialist skills are required to use the tool, but it is helpful if the evaluation champion has previous formal or informal experience in collecting and presenting data for monitoring and evaluation, and an understanding of the processes and the problems associated with interviewing. Knowledge of or a background in involving people in participatory processes would also be useful in deciding how to facilitate the participative elements of the tool. Staff time Prove It! has been designed to be integral to a project as opposed to something that is undertaken after it has been completed. To avoid any extra burden to staff workloads this must take place as part of existing project activities. Because of the emphasis on self-appraisal (without relying on outside consultants) many of the data collection activities need to be undertaken by staff within the project. It is vital that at the start of a project (and therefore at the start of its evaluation) the evaluation champion agrees with staff, volunteers or partners the extent to which they will be involved in the evaluation process. An Evaluation Planning Template is included in the materials to help guide this discussion. There is no hard and fast rule as to how much time to spend on the evaluation, but best practice suggests using 10 per cent of the initiative’s or project’s budget or time. Time to involve the project’s beneficiaries, including distribution and collection of questionnaires, or in a Storyboard and Poster Evaluation session will be required. The original Prove It! handbook describes in more detail how to involve local people in shaping and taking part in other aspects of an evaluation. Courses, support, and information The Prove It! handbook provides useful support and information. nef may be able to provide limited telephone and email support if staff are available. The handbook can also be used by evaluators or outside consultants to guide an assisted process. Development, ownership and support nef developed the tool with Groundwork UK and Barclays PLC in 2000. The handbook, Prove It! Measuring the effect of neighbourhood renewal on local people, can be downloaded for free from the nef website. Some organisations that have used Prove It!:
Further sources of information The handbook, also includes appendices with further information on indicators, surveys and social capital, of which there is also a rich and varied literature in the public domain. Click on this link to view the original Prove It! handbook. More information on experiences of using Prove It! can be found at www.community.barclays.com or www.groundwork.org.uk Prove It! Lighter Version Prove It Toolkit Methodology 3.1 Prove It! Additional Question Instructions.doc * All quotes are taken from ‘Prove it! Its development and its potential for evaluating community-based regeneration projects’, nef, published 2005. |
“Prove It! turns up different answers, exploration of softer outcomes and a chance for discussion.” “It assists – it’s not a burden. It isn’t dry either – it helps you to be imaginative about the project.” “Prove It! Works best with projects that have a clear aim, a clear start and a clear finish. Harder with bigger projects.” It’s good for longer-term projects because we can track progress over time” |
