News & thoughts

This blog was written by Venetia Boon, Children and Young People Grants Manager at Comic Relief.

“Cracking the impact nut” or How the Youth Investment Fund learning and impact strand responds to the challenges of evaluation in open access provision
This blog has been written Matthew Hill, Head of Research and Learning at the Centre for Youth Impact.

This blog was written by Jack Welch, who is an autistic and youth voice activist, and has been working with the Centre as a young researcher. You can find him on Twitter and Medium.

Inspiral Targets: the measurement of everything and the value of nothing
​Dan Gregory, of Common Capital, makes the case for ‘uncertainty, complexity and modesty’, as he reflects on his recent keynote presentation at The Centre for Youth Impact Gathering 2017.

The day was a reminder of the critical importance of creating open spaces for discussion and reflection – for sharing our own work, that of others, and learning from those we wouldn’t automatically work with day to day.

Pippa Knott is Head of Networks at the Centre for Youth Impact. She is part of a small team that has established and developed the Centre, and has talked increasingly about creating the conditions for meaningful impact measurement. This requires shifts in culture and behaviour as much as developments in methodological design and research tools.

By working with the cohort across the course of the funding to develop a shared evaluation framework we will be able to explore not only what aspects of service provision lead to the greatest impact – but why.

When treasuring is measuring, and why we might need a rethink

In this blog, Bethia McNeil, Director of the Centre, reflects on how we can collectively shape a new path for evaluation and impact measurement. She argues that we need to do more than just think differently, we need to behave differently.

The Centre's essay collection informs, challenges and encourages you to take your thinking one step further.

In an article originally published in Campbell Tickell’s CT Brief, the Centre’s Pippa Knott explores charities’ different objectives in undertaking impact measurement – and on whose behalf.

The Centre for Youth Impact continues to explore the feasibility of a collective impact approach that can deliver better outcomes for young people in the UK. This work is carried out in partnership with NPC and UK Youth. ​

"It’s tough at the top - whatever sector you’re in. But in the social sector, including the youth sector, there are some distinct challenges for leaders."

We are excited to announce that the Centre for Youth Impact has been invited to facilitate a year-long research and learning project for the Talent Match programme.

The Centre will be working with Ambition to co-develop its strategy and approach to embedding meaningful impact measurement, both within Ambition itself and across its membership.

"The aim is to move on from the failed approach of waiting to find out if an intervention is effective before thinking about scalability."