Reports Database

The Global Action Plan has a longstanding commitment to working with local residents, young people and families in the community of Ballymun. Today, their work focuses on environmental programmes and events with aim to educate the community about ways to reduce their carbon footprint and to promote more sustainable behaviour at home.

GAP has also developed a network of schools and community providers in Ballymun. Programmes are delivered in various primary and secondary schools, community centres, youth clubs and other community or voluntary groups. In addition, GAP works in close partnership with Dublin City Council to help improve the maintenance and upkeep of green space, gardens and parks in Ballymun.

The European Youth Forum is the platform for youth organisations in Europe. The European Youth Forum is committed to advocate towards the recognition of the values and contribution of youth organisations to the wellbeing of our society and they commissioned this study to collect evidence on the value youth organisations bring to the social development of young individuals, communities and societies through youth work and youth participation.

The RMHC’s Italian headquarters were established in 1999, and provides services through four Ronald McDonald Houses (Florence, Roma Palidoro, Roma Bellosguardo, and Brescia) and two Family Rooms in hospitals at Bologna and Alessandria. For the past 17 years RMHC has implemented programmes to support families with sick children who have to travel far from home, providing comfort, support, and resources just steps away from the hospital. Since several studies have stressed the importance of ensuring that families stay together when a child is hospitalized, RMHC has made this the centre of their activities. By applying the Family Centered Care approach, a view on caring for children that emphasizes the strengths and needs of their families, RMHC allows families to be active participants in their child’s care.

Kids Under Cover is a not for profit organisation dedicated to preventing youth homelessness through early intervention and prevention.

The Kids Under Cover model is delivered via the Studio and Scholarship Programs.

We work in partnership with approximately 60 Community Service Organisations (CSOs), along with government departments and young people. Our Studio Program aims to respond to the issues associated with inadequate, or a lack of access to, stable and affordable housing, especially during important developmental years.

In the belief that prevention is better than a cure (and knowing it is more cost effective) the Studio Program provides safe, stable and secure accommodation for vulnerable young people (12-25 years) who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

From October 2013 – December 2016 IWM North and Manchester Museum delivered a volunteering, training and placement programme across 10 heritage venues in Greater Manchester. The project, Inspiring Futures: Volunteering for Wellbeing or if for short, can be viewed as an exemplar in partnership working to tackle wellbeing inequalities.

The project led to improved quality of life and life satisfaction amongst people who were from disadvantaged backgrounds. This report demonstrates that museums and galleries can:

• be highly effective settings for supporting local services to improve peoples’ wellbeing
• improve pathways to meaningful life opportunities in the community

The if model has been unique in providing both a stimulating and reflective environment in tackling social isolation and wellbeing inequalities. It helps people from disadvantaged or vulnerable backgrounds to believe in themselves. This project increases confidence and selfworth and most importantly it helps people realise their full potential to take that next step in supporting their
own wellbeing.

The Timebank is a mechanism for local people to share the skills and abilities they have with other people in the community using time as a currency – not money. People join the Timebank and state what they can offer to help others, and also what they may like in return. Members then help one another on the basis of exchanging time where one hour of one member’s time is worth the same as one hour of another’s, regardless of the task being completed. Through this mechanism of equal exchange the Timebank achieves the twin aims of community development and health and
wellbeing improvement.

Taiwan Dream Project is supported by the annual CTBC Financial Holding charity campaign, Light Up a Life, and the goal of the project is guaranteeing the rights on underprivileged children. Since 2015, when this Project was started, the project has cared for children living in remote rural areas of Taiwan. The project’s concept is “the community’s children is our children”, and the goal is to use the power of local community residents to provide adequate companionship after class, comprehensive array of courses, and healthy meals to skip-generation families, new immigrant parents, and single parents with relatively limited resources in the community.

The aim of this SROI evaluation is to illustrate the social impact of Allergies Support Network (ASN)’s capacity building effort supported by Panasonic. The purposes of the support to NPO’s capacity building efforts are;

• Enhancing the organisational capacities, such as management skills, human resources, financial management, fundraising, plan-do-check-assess etc.
• As a result of the capacity building efforts, the organisation creates a wider range of social value.

Pact Myanmar in collaboration with Cesvi conducted a Social Return on Investment study of the Shae Thot project’s livelihoods activities from August 2015 – March 2016. This report presents the methods and findings of this assessment for the purpose of assurance.

The project team engaged all stakeholders that we expected to have material outcomes due to the project, considering both those who might be both positively and negatively affected. We then conducted a series of focus groups and surveys with these stakeholders to map the outcomes they saw in their lives, estimate the number of stakeholders for whom the outcomes happened, value the outcomes, and consider how much of the outcome can be attributed to project activities. After processing the data, we narrowed the analysis to only the five stakeholders whose outcomes had a material impact on the final results. The values calculated per stakeholder are listed in the table below, with WORTH (women’s savings and empowerment group) members’ families netting the highest value.

This report contains a forecast of the economic, social, and environmental outcomes of a reforestation project in coastal Louisiana at the southern tip of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV). The Social Return on Investment (SROI) was commissioned by Restore the Earth Foundation (Restore the Earth), a non-governmental organization that aims to generate support from corporate donors to fund forest and wetland restoration efforts in the MAV. Restore the Earth has an initial focus on Louisiana coastal environments in the face of the state’s ongoing coastal land loss crisis (Couvillon et al 2011). This report looks at its reforestation of 4,000 acres of cypress trees on the Pointe-aux-Chenes Wildlife Management Area (Pointe-aux-Chenes, LA) as part of its future goal of restoring a million acres of the MAV.

This report contains a forecast of the economic, social, and environmental outcomes of a reforestation project in the central Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) in northeast Louisiana. This Social Return on Investment (SROI) assessment was commissioned by Restore the Earth Foundation (Restore the Earth), a non-governmental organization that aims to generate support from corporate donors to fund forest and wetland restoration efforts in the MAV. This report looks at the reforestation of 1,943 acres of bottomland hardwood forest planted through investments by Entergy Corporation in the Tensas National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in 2005. Although Entergy Corporation funded the on-the-ground costs of the reforestation project, this report was funded solely by Restore the Earth to provide an independent assessment of the social impacts of the project on key stakeholder groups.

Foundations Furniture have undertaken an evaluation of their current service in order to understand and forecast their impact to the wider community. The total cost needed to deliver the current service is £114,865, which supports 677 low-income individuals to furnish their homes and 14 volunteers to develop employment skills and confidence, per annum. This income consists of commercial sales, grant funding and delivery costs.

For every £1 invested into Foundations Furniture the social return on investment is £3.20.

When compared with other high-income countries, Canada has some of the highest prevalence and frequency rates of substance use among youth. One of five Canadians will experience an addiction or mental health issue within a given year, and 70% of mental illnesses have their onset during adolescence. Canadians aged 15 to 24 are more likely to experience addiction or mental health issues than any other age group. In order to address these issues early in life, young people experiencing severe addiction, mental health and behavioural issues may require intensive, long-term residential treatment. Pine River Institute provides such treatment to young people between the ages of 13 and 19 who face addiction issues, as well as behavioural and psycho-social
challenges (Mills & McNeill, 2014). PRI opened in 2006 and is the only program of its kind in Canada, offering a comprehensive suite of wilderness, residential, transition and aftercare treatment. This report focuses on the economic value of the health and behaviour outcomes for young people who have attended PRI since 2010, relative to the cost of service provision.

Befriend a Child is an independent charity which has worked to benefit children and young people across Aberdeen and the Aberdeenshire area since 1975. The charity’s mission statement best summarises what it does:

“We support children and young people growing up in difficult life circumstances across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire to achieve their full potential and develop into confident and competent young adults.”

The purpose of this study was to forecast the Social Return on Investment (SROI) associated with children’s (8-14yrs) participation in Cirkidz circus-arts training on their mental health and wellbeing.

The early and middle years of childhood are recognised as being pivotal in ensuring good cognitive development throughout life, resulting in healthier societies. Healthier societies can mean a reduction in lifestyle related illness and therefore potentially reduce reliance on healthcare resources. Furthermore, healthier societies have been shown to be more economically productive.

The SROI analysis found that for every one dollar invested, $7 of social return may be generated due to participation in Cirkidz Tweenz circus training.

In 2014 City of Edinburgh Council undertook a project intended to calculate an estimate of the value of services delivered in Edinburgh Council-run parks. The study provided a forecast of the social return from the investment by the Council in 4 sample Edinburgh Parks, and also the Pentland Hills Regional Park. The benefits that are measured are those that are made possible by the investment the authority makes in maintaining and managing the park and have been identified following consultation with those who were most directly affected. The analysis of the 4 sample parks was undertaken during 2014 by Carrick Associates. The analysis of Pentland Hills Regional Park was undertaken by Greenspace Scotland in 2012. The results of the 5 studies were then combined with population data obtained from 5000 face-to-face interviews to give an estimate of the value of services delivered in all 142 of Edinburgh’s parks.

This document is the Technical Report which provides details of how the 4 sample park studies were undertaken, and the results that were found. It is 90 pages long. There is also a shorter separate summary report available, which gives an overview of the process and the findings, and gives the scaled-up figures for the city park system. It should be read alongside this one. This document draws together the 4 individual parks SROI studies which together were used as a basis for scaling up an estimate of the value of all of Edinburgh’s parks. Each park study was conducted as a separate exercise, so please note that there is an element of repetition in the descriptions of the processes that were applied in each case. The Pentland Hills Study was created as a stand-alone report and can be downloaded separately.

The overall finding was that for every £1 invested in Edinburgh’s parks, approximately £12 of benefits are delivered. The cost benefit ratio varies from 1:7 for a natural park, to 1:17 for a large city-centre park.

The brief for this work was to describe the expected impact of the proposed investment, from private sources and for public benefit, into the rejuvenation of a unique and special place, the West Princes Street Gardens, and its principal public building, the Ross Bandstand, situated right in the centre of the City of Edinburgh.

The Ross Development Trust is proposing to raise £25m to fund an ambitious programme of renovation for the Gardens. This investment will transform the Gardens as a destination within Edinburgh, while securing the tranquillity of its green landscape and its intricate heritage and preserving them as a “common good”, accessible to all.

This investment will create economic and social benefits in a number of ways. This report estimates that the investment could generate around £13m Gross Value Added during construction for Scotland and £9m for Edinburgh’s City Region (“ECR”), together with 131 Scottish and 93 ECR jobs. During operation, the plans for the Gardens could create around £5m GVA for Scotland and £4.3m for ECR, and up to 65 direct and indirect jobs.

But these figures are just the economic by-product of a Project that is fundamentally civic in nature. The Gardens are part of the city’s identity, of its brand. Nor is it just a preservation project, important as it is that the Gardens and its structures, bequeathed by previous generations, are preserved for those yet to come. This is about what significance – what “value” they have for the city, taking “value” in its broadest sense. We have estimated, for illustrative purposes, that the impact of investment on the City’s brand could be around £7m in GVA terms.

This is a good time to be thinking about the future of the Gardens. They occupy a very visible space in Edinburgh’s global “shop window”. Key elements of the Gardens are in serious need of investment. Edinburgh, meanwhile, is trying to shape its future through a City Region deal and at the same time asking its citizens what kind of a city they want in 2050.

No doubt much will change in the coming decades, but it is impossible to visualise the city centre without the West Princes Street Gardens.

The question that follows is how is these Gardens can best be enjoyed to the full by Edinburgh’s citizens and its visitors. The Gardens started life as the exclusive preserve of a few, until a far-sighted local authority assumed responsibility and turned them into a public park – a “common good”. Today they remain freely accessible and enjoyed by many, but they are below par in a number of ways, as financial pressures force difficult choices for the Council.

We need to ask what the Gardens say about Edinburgh to the outside world. Edinburgh is a city in the international spotlight, which gives it access to opportunity on a scale that is disproportionate to its size – and with that opportunity come corresponding responsibilities to continue to excel in what it can offer tourists and business visitors.

Some of the answers lie with the project that is the subject of this work. The Ross Development Trust has been formed as a new charity, with its sole purpose to rejuvenate the West Princes Street Gardens by levering in major new capital investment, to secure the legacy and build on it for generations to come.

Trying to put a value on the West Princes Street Gardens and its assets is far from easy. Equally, it is undeniable that there is a value, but described in many different ways. It might be helpful to think about it in terms of the relationship between value and meaning; if there is meaning, there is value and vice versa.

It is not the purpose of this report to assess the feasibility of the proposals. An early feasibility study was commissioned from Jura Consultants by the Trust in November 2015 and the financial and operational feasibility of the Project is subject to ongoing development as the proposals evolve.

This report describes why the Project is important, how it can make a difference and ways in which we can assess this.

This report addresses the question of whether health service use and health service costs fall as a consequence of supported entry to public housing for formerly homeless people and those at risk of homelessness. It also examines the health and social outcomes of formerly homeless and at-risk of homelessness tenants.

An important benefit of the present study compared with previous Australian studies is the use of linked housing and health administrative data. The large sample size increases confidence in the findings presented because a larger number of clients and experiences are able to be investigated and the rigour of statistical analysis is improved.

The study links Western Australian person-level health service system records with person-level public housing tenancy records and tracks the health service use patterns of 983 NPAH and 2,400 priority housing (homelessness) tenants before entry into housing and following entry into housing. On the basis of the linked health and housing data in Western Australia, our study finds that the provision of public housing for NPAH program participants as well as those entering public housing through priority housing (homelessness) was associated with reduced health service use (both in the proportion using services as well as frequency/duration of use) in the year following entry into public housing as compared with the year prior to entry.

In particular, significant reductions were evident, pre- and post-entry into public housing, in the proportion of NPAH program and priority housing (homelessness) tenants accessing an Emergency Department (ED), an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), or psychiatric service or mental health provider, staying overnight in a hospital, or having a prescription for opioid dependence. There was no significant change for hospital in the home (HITH) services. Reductions in the frequency of visits to an ED or ICU, the duration of time spent in hospital, in psychiatric care or with a mental health service provider and the mean number of prescriptions for opioid dependence were also observed, with only an increase, post-entry into public housing in average days per person/per year utilising HITH services.

This study also provides an estimate of the potential economic impact of the change in health service use associated with provision of public housing and NPAH program support for homeless people and those at risk of homelessness. The overall decrease in frequency and duration of health service use, comparing the year prior to and the year following entry into a public housing tenancy, results in a combined potential health system cost saving in Western Australia of $16.4 million per year or $4,846 per person per year. If priority homeless clients are excluded; the change per person with NPAH support is nearly triple this at $13,273 per person per year. The large cost offset is primarily related to reduced health service use among clients of the NPAH Mental Health program, where potential health savings amount to $84,135 per person per year. Across all NPAH programs, the change in stays in hospital ($3,114 per person per year) and in psychiatric care ($1,558 per person per year) account for the vast majority of potential health cost savings.

The average cost of providing support under the NPAH programs examined is estimated as $6,462 per person per year (2009–12). This is less than half the potential health cost offsets associated with the NPAH programs ($13,273 per person per year (2012–13)). In particular, the large estimated health cost offset associated with the NPAH Mental Health program ($84,135 per person per year) suggests a large potential positive impact on government budgets is associated with this program. Cost savings of the kind identified in the present study are presently not identified in government budgets. The estimated cost savings simply accrue to the health service system and result in more needs being met in the health care system than would otherwise be the case. In short, more resources are freed up in the health system to meet health needs because of a successful housing and homelessness program.

The aim of the 50 Lives 50 Homes project (hereafter referred to as 50 Lives) is to house and provide support to 50 of Perth’s most vulnerable homeless people.

This research report constitutes the first of three reports for the evaluation of the 50 Lives. 50 Lives is a cross-sectoral collaborative project between a range of Perth-based agencies, including Ruah Community Services (which provides backbone support to the project) and, 27 other partner organisations to date, including, homelessness support services, community mental health services and government housing and health services.

The aims of this evaluation are to determine: 1) how effective and efficient the 50 Lives approach is in providing sustainable housing and wellbeing outcomes for the most vulnerable rough sleepers; 2) the impact of the 50 Lives project on client health, mental health, wellbeing, housing and justice outcomes; 3) the economic and social impact of the 50 Lives project; 4) the extent to which the 50 Lives collaboration enables improved service efficiencies and new innovative ways of working to improve client outcomes and addressing homelessness, and; 5) the main challenges and barriers to the 50 Lives project in efficiently and effectively providing sustainable housing outcomes for the most vulnerable rough sleepers.

The primary focus of this first evaluation report is to provide baseline data pertaining to objects 1 and 4. The evaluation of the 50 Lives project is being conducted by The Centre for Social Impact University of Western Australia (CSI UWA) with collaborators from Royal Perth Hospital (RPH), Homeless Healthcare (HHC) and the UWA School of Population and Global Health.

This evaluation has been designed as a longitudinal study and has utilised various sources and collection methods to measure the impact of the 50 Lives project. This includes data from the Vulnerability Index – Service Prioritisation Decision Assistance Tool (VI-SPDAT); client satisfaction surveys; de-identified administrative data from RPH and HHC; data from the Ruah After Hours Support Service (AHSS); in-depth interviews with 50 Lives clients and case studies on the working groups. The VI-SPDAT will be re-administered with the 50 Lives clients in early 2018, enabling comparative analysis and measuring changes in outcomes over time.

Overall the evaluation takes a realistic evaluation approach and recognises that there are a range of factors that influence the extent to which positive outcomes are attained for a client and this will be monitored over the course of the evaluation.