Evaluation and learning role for the Building Connections Fund

We are delighted to be working in a consortium led by NPC, and including the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, Brunel University London, and Bryson Purdon Social Research, to undertake the evaluation and learning role for the Building Connections Fund. It is an £11.5m investment to tackle loneliness, funded by the UK Government, the Big Lottery Fund and the Co-op Foundation.

The consortium’s role will be to capture the impact of the Fund on reducing and preventing loneliness and support capability building of grant holders. Beginning in January 2019, 126 organisations working with different age groups have received two-years of funding. The Centre’s work will be especially focusing on projects that specifically aim to support young people – one of the most interesting and important aspects of the Fund. The evaluation and learning consortium will:

• support grant holders with their evaluation practice;
• undertake focused evaluation on a sub-group of grant holders, to inform the wider sector as well as the evaluation of the Fund;
• support grant holders and the wider sector to learn from the data collected and, as a result, improve their service provision.