Blog: Turning up the heat on peer support evaluation
Our Evaluation Coordinator Iona feels all warm and fuzzy about evaluation and invites you in from the cold!
When we say evaluation, what comes to mind? Long surveys, complicated forms and a lot of data to sift through? Does it feel more like a chore than something useful to you?
Maybe it brings up feelings of putting people in a box, uncomfortable questions or trying to quantify mental health recovery. If you answered yes to any of these, we get you! Evaluation can feel heavy, difficult and cold- but it doesn’t have to be.
Evaluation can be creative and warm
We recognise that evaluation is vital but often misunderstood. We also firmly believe that it doesn’t have to be a laborious process. It can be fun, creative, and warm. We know from your feedback that the biggest hurdle is embedding evaluation within an organisation. Developing those consistent processes and practices so that it becomes sustainable. Peer support organisations and services do incredible work, but the impact can often live in the heads of staff and the stories of those they support.
Formal evaluation can understandably (we know how busy you are!) fall by the wayside. By taking some initial time to embed evaluation, it becomes second nature, helping you to consistently measure and demonstrate the powerful impact you’re already making. We want to make embedding evaluation an easier process. This serves two interlinked purposes:
- Building the evaluation capacity of peer support organisations for a more consistent approach, and therefore..
- Creating a robust evidence base to demonstrate the impact of peer support
Outcome maps for all!
How will we do this? Our first step is our new project, Let’s Evaluate Peer Support. Stage one of the project involves co-designing an adaptable outcome map with organisations who deliver peer support. We’ll be working closely with:
- Bipolar Scotland
- Mindspace
- Neil’s Hugs Foundation
- Stepping Stones
- Penumbra
- The Living Warriors Project
- Families in Trauma
- Dundee Volunteer and Voluntary Action (DVVA)
- Hope Point Dundee (Penumbra)
- Moray Wellbeing Hub
People involved in the project hold a wide range of roles, ensuring that we capture diverse perspectives. By bringing different people together, we aim to have open discussions and find creative solutions. Through three interconnected workshops we’ll be focusing on identifying what aspects of peer support we should be evaluating and why.
We know peer support is unique, so how we evaluate it must reflect this. Taking the findings from the workshops, we’ll create an adaptable outcome map. This tool will be available for all organisations to use, (sign up to our newsletter) alongside the stories of the people who contributed to it. Peer support evaluation in action!
One size doesn’t fit all so our adaptable outcome map will provide organisations with a flexible framework to create tailored outcome maps specific to their projects. It will ensure consistency in core values, like empowerment and inclusivity, while allowing each organisation to highlight its unique approach and context. This helps ensure and maintain a collective understanding of the desired outcomes whilst respecting the diversity of peer support projects across the country.
We can’t wait to get started
We’re so excited and incredibly grateful to the people and organisations involved in this important project. There’s so much passion and expertise out there that we want to harness and share. As one participant shared,
Evaluation is something I know is important, but I rarely have the space to think and reflect on it so intentionally. I am therefore so excited to have the opportunity to do this.
Let’s evaluate peer support project participant
Together, we can turn up the heat on evaluating peer support in Scotland. Develop a consistent approach, ensuring that the positive impact of peer support is recognised, invested in and celebrated far and wide.
Iona
