The VVU recently attended an evaluation workshop to explore how we can further improve our practice, and continually improve our collection of meaningful data to measure the impact of our work.
Evaluation is critical to the VVU for many reasons, it helps us understand where we are making impact, it allows us to build on what works, helps us evidence value to the public and funding bodies, builds the case for funding for preventative approaches, and critically builds in sustainability to proven partnership approaches to reduce serious violence.
Evaluation needs to fit within all roles of the VVU, from understanding whether our campaigns are effective and meeting their objectives, through to collecting data on whether interventions are making a meaningful difference to young people and through this reducing serious violence in communities.
The day ended with the team refreshing its framework to ensure we measure the protective factors of the projects and interventions we support in a clear and consistent way, as part of demonstrating impact.