ESS kickstarted 2021 with a spotlight on Evidence Use. From January to April, we promoted old and new resources that can help you make sense of your self-evaluation evidence, which we hope you found helpful!
We got the ball rolling by promoting our latest guide on Evidence Use, ‘How good is my evidence’ in January, which we followed-up with a webinar event on the same topic in February. Throughout the months we promoted our suppport guides and evidence use related publications (e.g. from the Knowledge Translation Network) and wrote new blogs. Finally, we promoted Covid-19 related resources that could help with evidence use.
See below for a rundown of our Evidence Use resources, which we also tagged as #EvalEvidence on Twitter:
Guides
How good is my evidence?: a guide to assessing the quality of self-evaluation evidence (2020)
Sometimes we are asked ‘How do I know my evidence is good enough?’ The answer is not straightforward, because it depends on a number of factors. This guide takes you through a series of steps that allow you to answer this broad question.
ESS Support Guide 3a – Analysing information for evaluation
This guide covers how organisations can analyse and make sense of the information they have gathered through evaluation so they can write reports.
Making Sense: Analysing qualitative information
This is a supplementary sheet to ESS Support Guide 3a – Analysing information for evaluation about analysing qualitative information.
Making Sense: Analysing quantitative information
This is a supplementary sheet to ESS Support Guide 3a – Analysing information for evaluation about analysing quantitative information.
Making Sense: Analysing as you go
This is a supplementary sheet to ESS Support Guide 3a – Analysing information for evaluation about analysing information as you go.
Webinars
How good is my evidence? – webinar
In this webinar we will take you through our new guide ‘ How good is my evidence? A guide to assessing the quality of self-evaluation evidence.’
Webinar: What is good evidence? (2015)
The What is Good Evidence? webinar aims to share evidence of ‘what works’ in social policy and practice between UK jurisdictions. On 1 September 2015 the Alliance for Useful Evidence
‘Evaluation explained’ video
Good enough evidence – TREBL framework
In this 2-minute video, ESS Deputy Director Diane Kennedy talks you through the TREBL framework which can help you think about ‘good enough’ evidence.
Blogs
Blog
Do you TREBL or tremble when it comes to evidence?
We need to evidence our outcomes in order to show the difference we make! But what is evidence? Evidence means different things to different people. We hear about courtroom evidence,
Blog
How do you like your evidence?
Evidence for self-evaluation can come from different sources and take different forms. But is any evidence better than other evidence?
Blog
Blog: Let’s stop chasing unicorns
There are different sets of evidence standards out there, but do they work in practice or are they mythological creatures like unicorns?
Blog
Help! It’s reporting time and my evidence is a jumble!
Because of COVID-19 your evidence might be a little bit different, less formal, more varied, more patchy and about different outcomes than agreed.
Blog
Could we get better at using evidence?
As third sector organisations, we collect lots of lovely self-evaluation evidence which we use in reports to funders. How can we get better at using them?
Knowledge Translation Network evidence guides
Evidence for Success guide (2015)
Easy to follow, step-by-step guidance and resources to support organisations to use evidence to influence policy and practice.
Evidence for Success: Collaborating with academics (2016)
This guide is for anyone in the third sector who wants to link to academics to generate and/or use evidence to improve policy and practice
Evidence from Elsewhere: Gathering, analysing and using other people’s evidence (2017)
A guide to using secondary evidence from third sector and other sources.
Engaging with evidence (2019)
This guide prepared by KTN introduces what is meant by communities engaging with evidence and why it is important.
Covid-19 related Evidence Use resources
Blog
Reporting on the challenges and changes of the last year – where to begin?
A year on from the first lockdown, getting ready to report on how all of these initial plans changed can be daunting. Where to begin?
Challenges and Changes due to Covid-19: Useful questions for analysis and reporting
This 2-page document has a list key questions you can ask as you analyse your evaluation data and get ready to report on challenges and changes due to Covid-19.
Crisis to Recovery case studies
These case studies can help you think about how you can use evidence collected from activities you have adapted in response to the pandemic, such as learning from online activities
Crisis to Recovery Case Study: Eat Well Age Well
Eat Well Age Well share their learning about adapting and evaluating their work during the COVID-19 crisis.
Crisis to Recovery Case Study: Alternatives Dundee
Alternatives Dundee share their learning about adapting and evaluating their work during the COVID-19 crisis.
Crisis to Recovery Case Study: Forres Area Community Trust (FACT)
Forres Area Community Trust (FACT) share their learning about adapting and evaluating their work during the COVID-19 crisis.
Crisis to Recovery Case Study: Home Start West Lothian
Home Start West Lothian share their learning about adapting and evaluating their work during the COVID-19 crisis.
Crisis to Recovery Case Study: Kingdom Off Road Motorcycle Club
Kingdom Off Road Motorcycle Club share their learning about adapting and evaluating their work during the COVID-19 crisis.
Crisis to Recovery Case Study: The Positive Steps Project at The Moira Anderson Foundation
The Positive Steps project at The Moira Anderson Foundation share their learning about adapting and evaluating their work during the COVID-19 crisis.
Crisis to Recovery Case Study: Women’s Aid South Lanarkshire (WASLER)
Women’s Aid South Lanarkshire (WASLER) share their learning about adapting and evaluating their work during the COVID-19 crisis.
Even though we’ve technically ‘ended’ our spotlight on Evidence Use theme, that doesn’t mean we’re done with the topic! You can always count on ESS so support you with self-evaluation evidence, so have a look at our resources page or get in touch with us if you need specific evaluation support.
Don’t miss our next theme by following us on Twitter at @EvalSupScot and subscribing to the ESS newsletter!
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