Reports Database

“Refuge is the UK’s largest single provider of specialist support for survivors of violence against women and girls (VAWG), supporting over 3,800 women, children and men on any given day.

Refuge’s network of services operates nationally across 53 local authority boroughs and district and county councils, and includes more than 40 refuges. Refuge also runs independent domestic violence advocacy services; culturally-specific services – including programmes for Vietnamese women and Eastern European women ; community outreach programmes; and single-point-of-access services – which act as the first point of contact for anybody experiencing gender-based violence across the whole of a local authority area. The National Domestic Violence Helpline is run by Refuge in partnership with Women’s Aid and receives more than 200 calls every day. In addition, Refuge runs award winning pro bono prevention and awareness raising campaigns.”

“The Poppy Factory is an independent charity and was established in 1922 by Major George Howson, who with a sum of £2,000 and the support of The Royal British Legion, wanted to create meaningful civilian employment for injured service men returning from the First World War. For more than 90 years The Poppy Factory has employed disabled veterans to make poppies, crosses and wreaths for The Royal British Legion and wreaths for the Royal Family at their factory in Richmond.

Getting You Back to Work is The Poppy Factory’s employability programme and was set up in 2010 to help more ex-Service men and women with physical disabilities and mental health conditions into sustained employment and make the transition into civilian life a smoother one.

A team of skilled and dedicated Employability Consultants and Volunteer Mentors located across England and Wales offer a comprehensive career management support package to accommodate the professional aspirations of the wounded, injured and sick ex-Service personnel. They provide an invaluable lifeline to those veterans who are the furthest removed from the employment market.”

“‘Housing First’ is a tried and tested approach to providing permanent housing for homeless people who are dependent on alcohol and drugs or who have mental health issues, with the support, social care and health services they need provided to them in their own homes or locally in their community. The intention is that housing should be available even if a homeless person refuses treatment for their substance misuse or mental health issues. A ‘harm reduction’ approach is adopted rather than a requirement of abstinence as a condition of tenancy, which is common in many accommodation-based services for homeless people. This approach is seen as respecting the individual’s right to a home of their own and to a personal and private life. It is the dominant homelessness policy in the USA at Federal, State and City levels; and it is also the preferred policy in a number of EU countries notably the France and the Republic of Ireland. It has also been adopted with variations in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.

Many of the Housing First projects referred to in the literature have been subjected to monitoring and research. The research shows that services had high levels of success and made positive gains for a majority of service users in terms of improved:

• health, mental and physical well-being;
• social and community participation,
• lower levels of crime and antisocial behaviour;
• reduced substance misuse; and
• high levels of tenancy sustainment (up to 88% of service users were still housed after 5 years in the original Pathways Housing First Project -New York; and the rate at which service users retained their housing was more than 90% in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, and just below 80% in Lisbon).”

“Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC) Active Together (AT) programme aimed to help encourage more participation in sport and physical activity across the county and was open to a range of community groups, from sports clubs to scout groups and parish and town councils, and schools.

In September 2014 the University of Gloucestershire was commissioned Public Health Gloucestershire to evaluate the AT programme as a means of establishing evidence of whether the programme is a good way of using funds to encourage greater participation in health enhancing activities.”

“Substance misuse is a key public health priority within the UK. Recent policy recommendations have highlighted the importance of providing services which focus on substance misuse recovery, not just treatment. Such support provides individuals with the skills and experiences they need to address key issues in their life which support their substance misuse recovery. It is hoped that this approach will help people to maintain abstinence and avoid relapse.

It has been recognised that the development of recovery capital is key to successful recovery. Recovery capital refers to the resources available to sustain recovery and refers to four key elements: human capital, social capital, physical and economic capital and cultural capital. Current service provision is predominantly provided by NHS, Local Authority and voluntary sector organisations. Some substance misuse provision in the UK does include a recovery function, however, recovery communities have an important role to play in delivering a range of services to support the development of recovery capital.

The Comic Relief ‘Give it Up’ Fund is a programme that aims to develop and build abstinence-based recovery communities and learn more about their value. The Give it Up Fund was delivered between October 2014 and October 2016 to support the development of recovery communities in four
geographical locations in England.”

“The Employment Law Centre of WA (Inc) (ELC) is a Western Australian (WA) based, not-for-profit community legal centre that has been operating for 14 years, specialising in employment law. They provide free employment law advice (mostly from their primary service, a state wide telephone line) and also offer further assistance in the form of representation if clients meet specialised criteria, legal education and outreach and law reform efforts. The Centre focuses on vulnerable, non-unionised employees in WA. The main legal issues they cover include unfair dismissal; adverse action; unlawful termination; underpayment of entitlements; breach of contract; bullying, equal opportunity matters and occupational health and safety. The advice given to clients over the Advice Line is from trained paralegals and junior solicitors operating under the supervision of a senior solicitor. Further assistance is generally provided by solicitors. Generally, all advice and assistance given is of a standard that vulnerable/ disadvantaged clients may not otherwise be able to afford. The centre advises clients on the claim or claims they are eligible to make, the benefits and disadvantages of pursing available claims, the merits of available claims and practical guidelines on how to make these claims. The aim is that the advice will benefit the client in the following ways: increased benefits from legal proceedings (both financial and non-financial), reduce health problems relating to stress/anxiety and improvements to the overall well-being of the client. Additional social benefits to the court system include reducing court costs by reducing the amount of weak/baseless claims and claims in the wrong jurisdiction, reducing potential social security payments to clients and reducing the burden on the health system.”

“BC Housing seeks to make a difference in people’s lives and communities through safe, affordable and quality housing. Since 2001, BC Housing has partnered with non-profit societies, government agencies, and community organizations through the Community Partnerships Initiative (CPI) to facilitate the development of affordable housing in communities across British Columbia. The CPI arranges mortgage financing to create self-sustaining affordable housing that does not require ongoing operating subsidies. BC Housing’s capacity to arrange financing with favourable terms is the cornerstone of the program.”

“TFS was started in 1994 to address a growing need to find a way to reuse and recycle unwanted household items. The work of the scheme has directly placed resources into the homes of some of the most excluded members of our community, ensuring these people can begin to build an independent life and home without increasing debt.

TFS still works to relieve poverty and eliminate discrimination, but this is much wider than the original remit of providing low cost household equipment and protecting the environment (through the 3Rs – reduce, recycle and reuse). TFS now provides volunteer, training and employment opportunities; and manages community centres as part of creating sustainable communities.”

“Street Soccer Academy (SSA) provides a service to individuals that have in many cases been left behind by, and isolated from, society. Reintegrating isolated individuals into communities is a complex and difficult task. SSA’s approach uses football, and sport more generally, as an initial mechanism for engaging with isolated individuals.

This assessment provides an analysis of the social and economic value of SSA work over the course of a typical year.

This assessment has been carried out independently and on a pro bono basis by Regeneris Consulting. Regeneris is an economic consultancy with offices in Manchester and London. Regeneris and SSA were paired by Pro Bono Economics who are a national body matching highly skilled economist volunteers with charities who need their expertise.”

“Employers For Childcare aims to make it easier for parents with dependent children to get into work and to stay in work.

Established in 1998 as a community project, the organisation has grown to encompass a campaigning charity and three successful Social Enterprises.”

“St Giles Trust is a charity which aims to break the cycle of prison, crime and disadvantage. It offers a range of services, both in prison and in the community, which aim to help the 16,000 clients they work with each year overcome any barriers which might be holding them back from moving their lives forward in a positive way. St Giles Trust stands out by placing prisoners and ex-offenders at the heart of the solution, engaging them to advise their peers while simultaneously providing them with training.”

“Giving World is a national charity whose objective is to enhance people’s life chances and to tackle poverty through the distribution of free surplus goods. It does this through a network of donors and distribution partners.

In 2015 Giving World distributed 73 tonnes of goods worth £710k1, making a positive difference to up to 297,985 beneficiaries in the UK and overseas.2 The majority (66%) of the goods were distributed in the UK valued at £434k (61% of the total value), benefiting some 222,264 beneficiaries.

Giving World’s activities target more disadvantaged groups in society: people with health problems, families on low incomes, children, young people, homeless people, unemployed individuals or elderly people – all groups that are at higher risk of poverty. This report focuses therefore on the impact Giving World has on its beneficiaries, who are generally part of more vulnerable economic / social groups.

The goods distributed include basic necessities (such as food and clothing) and other useful commodities such as education materials, toys for children, books or personal hygiene goods. Because of the nature, some of the goods have the ability to fulfil the everyday needs of people as well as enhance the lives of people who, in many cases, would be unable to buy such goods on the market had the Charity not existed.

Even though Giving World’s activities extend outside the UK, this analysis focuses on beneficiaries in the UK.”

“The Global Fund partnership brings together a myriad of strengths: finances; technical expertise; the experience and knowledge of communities affected by HIV, tuberculosis and malaria; innovation; and a capacity for constant evolution. The partners who comprise the Global Fund come with diverse abilities and points of view, yet they share a determination to serve people, to strive for social justice, and to achieve impact against HIV, TB and malaria and ultimately end the epidemics.

This report delivers a summary of the impact and results the Global Fund partnership was able to achieve by 2015, showing cumulative progress since the Global Fund was created in 2002. It is a collective effort, combining the strong contributions made by governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by HIV, TB and malaria. Here are the cumulative highlights:

• 17 million lives saved; on track to reach 22 million lives saved by the end of 2016
• A decline of one-third in the number of people dying from HIV, TB and malaria since 2002, in countries where the Global Fund invests
• 8.1 million people on antiretroviral treatment for HIV
• 13.2 million people have received TB treatment
• 548 million mosquito nets distributed through programs for malaria”

“CARE has carried out water, sanitation and hygiene and WRM (hereafter referred to collectively as water+) work for over 55 years and is currently managing approximately 181 projects in both emergency response and long-term development in over 40 countries. In fiscal year 2012 (July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012) over 1.5 million people benefited directly from CARE’s developmental work in water+ and over 9 million from its humanitarian (emergency) water+ work. During the 1960s CARE focused on water hardware installations in poor rural communities in the developing world. Over the next 30 years as its experience grew, CARE tackled other water-related components such as sanitation, watershed protection, and health and hygiene education. Although projects supported by CARE have been predominantly rural, CARE has undertaken an increasing number of urban projects since the early 1990s. These include water supply, drainage, on-site sanitation and sewer construction, and solid waste management. Most recently the emphasis has been on building the capacity of local institutions (through working in partnerships with local non-government organizations [NGOs], local governments and the private sector), strengthening community-led WRM and total sanitation, and establishing a multistakeholder approach to IWRM with stronger emphasis on sustainability and the need to climate-proof services and promote innovations such as payment for environmental services.”

“Available evidence suggests that Uzbekistan’s water supply and sanitation (WSS) systems are performing poorly. ADB (2012) for example estimates that less than half the national population has access to improved1 drinking water and only 17 percent of urban households receive water 24 hours per day. The situation is worse in smaller cities and rural areas. Water resource protection is weak with only basic treatment facilities in place (JMP 2006, 2013). Sanitation coverage is low even in urban areas and according to some sources sanitation and hygiene (WASH)-related diseases or illnesses are a major concern (WHO 2012 & Pruss-Ustun et al. 2008).

Reliable evidence on the quality of current WSS service conditions is scarce and consumer experience and views and voices are not systematically collected and used for policy development. International experience suggests that poor drinking water and sanitation services can cause households to incur high costs for dealing with this situation. However, in Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries, there is a lack of data on service quality and on coping costs. Together with limited feedback from consumers to those that design WSS policies and programs this makes it difficult to design effective reform measures and assess their ex-ante impact on households, in particular for those at the bottom of the income distribution.

This study assesses consumer experiences with current WSS services across a range of selected sites in Uzbekistan and determines consumer readiness for reform. First of all, the study analyses how surveyed consumers currently meet their drinking water and sanitation needs and what proportion of their household budget is spent on meeting their WSS needs. Second it assesses the interaction between consumers and service providers. Third it examines stakeholder views and positions on service modernization needs and assesses consumer willingness to pay for quality networked WSS services. Comparisons are made across consumers in a selection of cities, small towns and rural areas, between consumers that are connected to a networked service and those that are not, and between households in the bottom 40 percent and top 60 percent of the income
distribution (as estimated through a wealth index).”

“The Freedom Fund invests in frontline, communitybased organisations to protect those at risk, liberate and rehabilitate those enslaved and prosecute those responsible. Our interventions are designed to be strategic and scalable, informed by the needs and expertise of our local partners.

We also invest in a range of interventions at the national and international level to disrupt the systems that perpetuate slavery and to reinforce those that foster freedom, including policy advocacy, private sector engagement, and working with the media.”

“Globally, 1.1 billion people live without access to safe water supply, and 2.4 billion live without adequate sanitation. In the Asia and Pacific region, 700.0 million are without water supply, and 2.0 billion are without adequate sanitation. The problem is particularly grave and pressing in the rural areas, where 70% of the world’s poor reside (Asian Development Bank’s [ADB’s] 2006 Discussion Paper, Serving the Rural Poor: A Review of Civil Society-Led Initiatives in Rural Water Supply and Sanitation). While the emphasis has been on expanding coverage, an independent expert panel reported in its 2006 review of the water policy of ADB that it did not find empirical evidence to suggest that poor people necessarily benefit from improved coverage. In its 2007 thematic evaluation of water supply and sanitation (WSS), the European Commission noted that, in the absence of valid impact data, no definitive statement can be made on the role of European Commission investment in WSS in promoting better health. However, available information pointed to a qualified success and that European Commission investment has made a positive contribution to better health in target groups. Multiple impacts and long time and resource requirements mean that rigorous impact evaluations (RIEs) of the WSS sector are seldom conducted.”

“The Dyslexia-SpLD Trust (Trust) is a collaboration of organisations working to improve the lives of children and young people with dyslexia and specific learning difficulties (SpLD). The Trust first came together in 2009 and since then we have been working hard to make sure that children and young people with dyslexia and SpLD receive the right support to reach their potential.”

“Reach for Change is the result of having torn down the walls between different sectors and social functions in society. We create change by fusing the power of business with the great potential of civil society. The result is our incubator investing in social entrepreneurs on three different continents, making the world a better place for children. During 2015, we have yet again seen examples of how cooperation can work wonders, and how just one voice can be the starting point of a remarkable change.”

“Globally, some 7,000 rare diseases have been identified.1 Compared to widespread conditions that strike hundreds of millions of people, rare diseases can lack similar levels of interest amongst the general public and medical/research communities. Most of these individual diseases receive little attention because they affect only thousands – or sometimes only hundreds – of patients worldwide.2

Yet looking at rare diseases as a collective entity, we are able to realize their expansive impact. Collectively, there are approximately 30 million people living with a rare disease in the US and another 3.5 million in the UK.3,4 Around the globe, the rare disease community is estimated to include 350 million people.5 And rare diseases touch more than just the patient. These conditions also impact families, friends, caregivers, physicians, payors, and society as a whole.

There is an urgent need to understand the state of rare diseases and the current gaps in care and support. To address this need, in January 2013, Shire conducted online surveys over a four-week period among US/UK rare disease patients and their caregivers, physicians treating patients with rare diseases, payors who handle reimbursements for healthcare plans and government/institutions, and thought leaders in the rare disease space. Surveys were fielded through market research agency ORC International and also distributed by advocacy group partners Global Genes and the Genetic Alliance UK.”