Previous Research and Policy Work

Investing in Social Capital - An Evaluation Model for Voluntary and Community Activity

On 10th April 2003 CENI launched the final report of a research project commissioned by the VCU to develop outcome indicators for voluntary activity. This represented the culmination of over two years’ work and addressed issues raised by the Consultation Document on Funding for the Voluntary Sector and the Partners Change, both of which highlight the importance of being able to measure the outcomes of voluntary and community based activity.

The central message of the report is that if the relationship between the sector and Government is to be based on the principle of partnership as espoused in the Programme for Government and Partners for Change documents, then mechanisms for funding and evaluation need to reflect this. The report outlines such a model for evaluation. Furthermore the notion of social capital is introduced and a draft framework of indicators produced to capture the more qualitative or process outcomes of community and voluntary activity.

The launch of this report will close the current phase of the research but the report does make some recommendations for taking the work forward. While there has been considerable interest and support for the ideas propagated in the report, especially from the organisations involved in pilot case studies and those in Government circles, the consensus is that much more needs to be done particularly on issues such as the base lining and measurement of social capital at regional and local level. The implication of implementing the proposed model of evaluation on a wider scale across the sector also needs to be addressed.

The DSD report 'Toolkit to Measure the Added Value of Voluntary and Community Based Activity' published in January 2006 is available on the DSD website and can be found here: http://www.dsdni.gov.uk/toolkit_to_measure_the_added_value_of_voluntary_and_community_base_activity.doc