Sharon Clancy - Head of Community Partnerships

Neil Brown - Social Enterprise Internship Programme Co-ordinator

University of Nottingham

Creating an Engagement culture – linking research and public engagement

From Volunteering to Public Engagement – the Nottingham journey – Early years

Active Communities – 2002/3 – funding and support

Team evolved – 4/5 people

Staff volunteering focus – bucking national trend – prize winner. Separate from student-led volunteering

Staff welfare and well-being – local – schools emphasis, primary

Volunteering - 2003 – 2007/8

CSR – unique contribution or not? e.g. Time to Read

Marketing/PR/Registrars – a moveable entity

Not connected with wider teaching/learning agenda – TQEF

Beacons bid – not successful – public engagement very separate/business orientated – ‘specialist/non-specialist’

Community Engagement 2008 – October 2009

Volunteering engagement survey/public engagement survey – relationship with Research Innovation Service

Third sector research – workshops and focus groups

Community Engagement – strategy and themes – 2008 – virtual Access and Communities body

Heads of Schools – internal networking and needs analysis

Public Engagement and research –

October 2009 - present

Change of name and focus agreed at Management Board – re-launched October 2009 – Community Partnerships

Skills sharing – staff and students – community and school settings

Growth in interest in corporate partnerships – social enterprise/third sector/private/public – LEPs

‘Public’ university – social justice and access/early years

PE Manifesto – public engagement conference and working group

Research agenda and REF – Deans meetings - identifying current activity - embracing research potential

Pause for reflection

Does this journey reflect your own experience?

Discussion re: challenges and opportunities

The Roberts Project Social Enterprise Internship Programme

-1 Year Programme funded by Roberts Money, specifically for PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to develop employability skills

-Research projects undertaken for Social Enterprises/Third Sector Organisations (TSOs)

-Researcher based within Organisation (Internship) to help in the development of employability skills, e.g. communication, team working

-Project specifically meeting the research needs of a given Organisation e.g. evaluation of service, Feasibility studies, history of organisation study

Mutual benefit: organisation accessing research expertise of the University; Researcher gaining first hand experience (internship model) of an organisation

Future opportunities: volunteering, paid employment, research partnerships (wider research network) with organisation or other SE/Third Sector organisation

Case Studies Learn 2 Learn Comprehensive (Nottingham)

Deliver alternative education provision for young people who are excluded, at risk of exclusion or without a school or college place, not engaged in employment, education or training (NEET)

‘Evaluation of Organisation’s projects to determine their impact on participants (young people)’

Projects evaluated included: Core Alternative Education Project, Boys Gym, Girls ‘Rock Band’ (including fashion / dance ), Positive Vibrations (Boys Music Group)

100 hours Research Project undertaken from July – Sept 2011

Interviews / Report / Presentation to Management Board.

Main findings from Research Project: Anti-social behaviour as primary reason for accessing organisation

Organisations’ projects impacted positively on participants’ social lives, in terms of forming new friendships, modifying behaviours, and planning for the future.

Learn 2 Learn / Engagement

Organisation initially sceptical, viewing the researcher supervision / engagement as onerous

Eventually struck a balance with supervising the researcher and impressed by the researcher’s initiative in taking the project forward (arranging interviews with participants etc)

Found real value from the project in terms of evaluating projects, enabling the future shape and direction of the organisation

Keen to work with the University further, seeing real role for it in terms of providing relevant support (research and other activities); appreciated its engagement with the local community

Opportunities for further community/public engagement; Organisation championing their own project experience; power of testimonial; important to build on, in terms of facilitating engagement with new organizations/ local communities/wider public

Case studies The Core Centre, Calverton (Nottinghamshire)

Registered Charity and ‘Community Hub’ running educational and leisure courses for the local community and surrounding areas; also provides employment services and provides a weekly outreach service for the CAB.

‘Shaping the future services of a Community Hub (Education Centre)’

100 hours Research Project undertaken from Sept– November 2011

Interviews / Report / Presentation to Management Board.

Evaluation of current service and courses provision

Identification of future services and courses required by the community

Engagement with wider customer base e.g. local businesses, people requiring basic skills

Core Centre/Engagement Impressed with the scope of candidate’s work, both in terms of

satisfying project brief but also advising on how best to position the organisation re: future Big Lottery bid; a major source of funding (5 years)

Also impressed with the success of ‘researcher in residence’ drop-in facility at the Centre, with Centre users interviewed in dedicated room (surgery type format)

At researcher interview/selection stage organisation indicated their pride in working with Nottingham University; credible and trusted institution; quality of research importantly confirming this view

As with above project, importance of an organisation championing this work, enabling future opportunities with the organisation and others (new public engagement opportunities)

SE Programme and PE Programme a great facilitator of public engagement

Reaching out to organisations /communities /public

Great example of University resources being utilized (PhD / researcher expertise)

Legacy (proposed SE/TSO Research Network)

Nature of SEs/TSOs: social and environmental aims, organisations sympathetic to the PE Manifesto/agenda (public/civic agenda and identity)

Current economic situation further driving interest and opportunities for closer working with Universities and the SE/Third Sector

SE Programme and fit with PE Impact and benefits for the university Enriches the institution’s (i.e. University) research,

teaching and learning Members of the public challenge, enrich and broaden

academic thinking, and projects that have been defined and researched in partnership with the public can result in greater impact and relevance

Strengthens and enriches the university’s brand and identity, and can increase public appreciation of and support for higher education and research (Core Centre; pride at association with the University for the research undertaken)

SE Programme and fit with PE (contd) Motivates and develops staff and students The vast majority of staff and students believe they have a duty

to explain their work and its social and ethical implications to the public. Through engaging with the wider public, they develop a range of transferable skills, for instance in leadership, communication, listening, partnership working and project management.

“In addition to learning a lot from a professional point of view, it was a very good experience for me to get out of the lab, and do some extra curricular activities”.

“Being a Ph.D. student is very hard work and sometimes not rewarding, so, getting out of the lab and doing this activity helped me feel appreciated and useful again, and helped me get my self-esteem back.”

Learn 2 Learn Researcher

SE Programme and fit with PE contd Supports knowledge and understanding of SE/third sector

organisations, their evidence base and ability to respond to policy changes; employability; partnership working

‘An unexpected outcome was that we gained confidence and self-esteem as an organisation as the researcher had experience to compare us with others and was in a position to say we managed to do a lot with scarce staff resources’.

‘We feel that the project will add much credibility to our opportunities for future funding applications and give our organisation "gravitas" in our partnership and stakeholder dealings. We hope that further partnership working with the university will be possible in the future’.

Continued ‘During the life of the project we had an opportunity to bid for a

Lottery grant under two categories: a) Supporting change - to conduct further research into becoming a more sustainable organisation by reviewing our activities, sharing learning and promoting our achievements; and b) Supporting impact - a further years' revenue costs in order to carry out plans to make us more sustainable. This was very timely as we could use some of the post graduate's research in our application evidence and even more, if we are successful in our Supporting change bid, we hope to employ the researcher as a consultant for a further few months next year on a part-time basis to help us develop and act on her initial findings’.

Feedback from the Core Centre

SE Programme and fit with PE (contd)

Generates unforeseen outcomes; stimulates creativity and innovation

One of the joys of public engagement is its unpredictability: fresh perspectives, challenging questions, lateral insights - all can help to sharpen thinking, release precious energy and creativity and unlock new collaborations and resources.

Pause for Reflection/discussion

How do we best measure and evaluate embedded research, capture the value of findings from a project such as Roberts?

How does this tie in with the REF agenda?

Key themes emerging/influences on PE and research – Recap

Employability - move to student academic engagement - experience and skills agenda

Skills and Enterprise – SEs/Third Sector

Early years/primary – issues of access/widening participation

Knowledge Transfer and Exchange

Charities Working Group – societal issues

Research and social/public impact – REF

Development of social impact toolkit All of the above culminated in and influenced the Social

Enterprise/post graduate research project

Social Impact tool Purpose of it:

To try to capture social/ community benefit of University engagement with community – benefit to the organisations

To try to identify benefits for other stakeholders – staff and students

Not research-based but trying to capture some of the ‘intangibles’ of social impact

Applied and experiential learning

Themes and findings – applicability to

REF

1/Ability to influence policy

2/Knowledge and skills

3/Leadership and influence

4/Partnership and ability to work with others

5/Personal development and satisfaction

Stakeholders

•Community organisations •Primary Schools

•University Staff •University Students

Themes / Areas

•Ability to influence Policy- Impact and understanding

•Knowledge and skills

•Leadership and influence

•Partnership-cohesion and communication; ability to work with others

•Personal development - health and well being

Objective / Purpose:

“To demonstrate the social value of the

University’s Community Engagement activity”

Recommendations

•Analysis across all CP activity and partners in community engagement

•Refined questionnaire – other social capital areas

•Context setting and training for students

•Enhanced research partnerships with third sector/community partners

•Application across other MA areas for students – applied learning valued

Key Outcomes and Findings

All Stakeholders attributed “High Impact” to:

•Enhanced ability to work with others and leadership skills

•Improved communication skills

•Confidence and personal motivation

•The enhancement of a range of work related skills

Low impact (mainly student respondents)

•Future research, unless the activity undertaken was connected with students’ area of study

•Future career options, only positively impacted for students working on activities connected with their area of study

Social Impact tool at a glance