neighbourhood fund

Place-based evaluation and Learning Partner

Youth Endowment Fund and Renaisi

The Youth Endowment Fund’s ‘Neighbourhood Fund’ is a place-based programme which aims to reduce youth violence in local neighbourhoods by involving local young people, the community and professionals in collectively creating solutions. Building on our previous work with Renaisi to deliver a placed-based developmental evaluation, we will be acting as a Learning Partner to build capacities for understanding and supporting change in context and to share learning across localities to inform understanding how empowering communities to design change impacts resilience among young people most impacted by violence and crime.

 

The need

Research finds that the vast majority of violent crime occurs in very specific local areas*. This means that efforts to reduce violence must have a strong awareness of local need and centre energies in hyper-localities to create the biggest impact. Effectively engaging with communities is essential to understanding the specific context and informing interventions that support local resilience. It will also help YEF to achieve its aim to evidence how community engagement and co-design approaches can reduce experiences of violence among young people.

Our response

Dartington will act as a Learning Partner supporting community researchers and local people to build capacity for understanding and supporting change in context. In collaboration with local organisations Dartington Service Design Lab and Renaisi will support the delivery of:

(i) Theories of Change that will work to inform locally-owned action plans

(ii) Local capacity development through guidance and workshops.

(iii) Tools to track and understand the iterative development of activities over time.

We will also work with YEF to share learning across localities to inform understanding how empowering communities to design change impacts resilience among young people most impacted by violence and crime.

 
 

Renaisi is the lead partner in this project. The work is being commissioned by the YEF Neighbourhood Fund.

Our work started in September 2021 and is concluding in 2024.

 For more information, contact:   Megan Keenan

* Measured at the Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) level.