The Community Research Initiative started as a way for master's students to do something different with their dissertations. In 2023-24, we started a new programme of shorter, less academic research projects which students undertake outside of their studies, as volunteers. Read on to learn how student volunteers are meeting data, evaluation and research needs in the third sector.
Making meaning of a mountain of data for Coaching for Unpaid Carers
The task
Coaching for Unpaid Carers needed support analysing four years worth of data on their services for unpaid carers. As coaching is a new intervention for this group, they sought credible evidence to raise awareness and demonstrate the benefits and value to funders and commissioners.
The outcome
Our volunteer, PhD student Jon Mella, created a single database for all our data. He then used our Theory of Change and evaluation framework to conduct a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data. For the first time we are now able to show credible evidence of improvements in key areas for participants which reinforce the value of coaching as a transformative tool for carers, offering hope and empowerment in challenging circumstances. This is essential for funding applications and reporting.
Catherine Macadam (Coaching for Unpaid Carers) and Jon Mella (UCL)
Capturing participant voices at the Hackney Shed Slam
The task
The Hackney Shed Slam challenges its young participants to compete in a speaking competition. Hackney Shed was looking for our students to be on the ground at the event, gathering feedback and capturing the voices of attendees.
The outcome
Our volunteer Jordan joined us for the monologue competition finals to observe and write an article. He interviewed participants after their performances and prize announcements, following our planned questions. His interviews were well-handled, resulting in an excellent article that now helps promote the project and update funders.
Hackney Playbus sought a volunteer to explore and organise our extensive 50-year archive. The archive included photographs, reports, news articles, stories, and more. They asked the volunteer to provide recommendations on the best ways to preserve, organise, and use the archive as a source of information.
The outcome
Our volunteer Chaiti organised all our historical information from 1972-73. She arranged all the files chronologically within 5 different different themes. Chaiti not only catalogued all the information relating to the start of our charity in the early 70's, she researched the local and national political and social framework which gave rise to the project and wrote it all up in a document called 'Hackney Playbus makes a start' . She gave us her ideas about how the information could be presented on our website and 'next steps' for the archive project.
