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#iWill Fund Learning Hub: All Blogs and Reports

The resources and blogs below are based on evidence, experiences and learning generated through the #iwill Fund.

The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £40 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities. These resources aim to support those who fund and deliver youth social action in making decisions about how to support youth social action, develop their practice and shape future delivery.

All outputs from the #iwill Fund Learning Hub are listed below, ordered by date (from earliest at the bottom to latest at the top). 

Blogs

Summary of first #iwill Fund Learning Hub LabStorms

​In June 2019 the College facilitated our first two ‘Labstorms’ as part of the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. This blog summarises our main report on the Labstorms, outlining the central themes that came out of each session held so far. 

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Developing a habit of social action

​In June 2019 the College facilitated our first two ‘LabStorms’ as part of the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. In this blog, we reflect on what we learnt from facilitating a discussion that explored the role that funders in creating or supporting the structures needed to make social action a habit for life, for all young people

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Exploring the LabStorm process

​In June 2019, the College facilitated our first two ‘LabStorms’ as part of the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. This blog is dedicated to the LabStorm process itself, outlining why we are using this approach in the Learning Hub and reflecting on the College’s experience of hosting the sessions.

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Understanding and communicating social action's community benefit

In June 2019 the College facilitated our first two ‘LabStorms’ as part of the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. In this blog, we reflect on what we learnt from facilitating a discussion that explored the role that funders make in creating or supporting the structures needed to make social action a habit for life, for all young people.

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Something New: Learning from organisations enabling youth social action for the first time

Different types of organisations are enabling youth social action as part of the #iwill Fund – youth social action looks different, and has different benefits in each. This blog by Jenny North of Dartington Service Design Lab shares findings from the #iwill Fund’s recent report into the new directions for youth social action suggested by the #iwill Funded activity.

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Participation for all – Youth Social Action and Socio-Economic Disadvantage

This blog was written as part of Dartington’s Service Design Lab’s work leading the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. In it, Dartington reflect on what they've learnt through writing a paper on socio-economic disadvantage gap in youth social action.

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Reports

Data Review 8

This is the eighth and final data review produced by the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. The purpose of these reviews is to synthesise the learning that is being generated and documented by the #iwill Fund and Match Funders with existing and emerging evidence outside the Fund. The scale and variety of youth social action supported by the #iwill Fund represents an unprecedented wave of activity, and these data reviews seek to harness this activity to capture and disseminate valuable learning for the field.

Report on the seventh #iwill Fund Learning Hub Labstorm

This is the seventh and final LabStorm for the #iwill Fund Learning Hub, which took place on 17 January 2022, which featured as its subject how the group of match funders would like to be able to learn in the future.

Data Review 7

Data Review 7 brings together learning generated and documented by the #iwill Fund and Match Funders with existing and emerging evidence outside the Fund, using these findings to understand the scale and variety of youth social action, and how this practice can be further supported.  

#iwill Fund Learning Hub Evidence Event Paper

This paper shares insights from presentations and group discussions from an #iwill Fund Learning Hub event for Match Funders on 30 November 2021.

#iwill Learning Hub Data Review 6

This is the sixth data review produced by the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. The purpose of these reviews is to synthesise the learning that is being generated and documented by the #iwill Fund and Match Funders with existing and emerging evidence outside the Fund. These data reviews seek to harness this activity to capture and disseminate valuable learning for the field. 

Summary of learning to date

This report summarises the learning from the last three years of #iwill Fund Learning Hub delivery, particularly from the Sector Evidence Plan workstream. It shares emerging conclusions, as well as examples of interesting practice, and next steps.

Report on the sixth #iwill Fund Learning Hub LabStorm

This is a write-up of the recent LabStorm on ‘youth voice’, which the College hosted. It shared conversations on definition and impact of ‘youth voice’, its relationship with youth social action, and how it interacts with existing power structures.

#iwill Learning Hub Data Review 5

This is the fifth data review produced by the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. The purpose of these reviews is to synthesise the learning that is being generated and documented by the #iwill Fund and Match Funders with existing and emerging evidence outside the Fund. These data reviews seek to harness this activity to capture and disseminate valuable learning for the field. 

Report on the fourth and fifth #iwill Fund Learning Hub Labstorms

This is the report from two Labstorms that focused on a discussion around funding campaigning as part of youth social action.

#iwill Learning Hub Data Review 4

This is the fourth data review produced by the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. The purpose of these reviews is to synthesise the learning that is being generated and documented by the #iwill Fund and Match Funders with existing and emerging evidence outside the Fund. These data reviews seek to harness this activity to capture and disseminate valuable learning for the field. This paper includes a focus on the disruption and adaptation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adaptation and Youth Social Action: The Impact of COVID-19

This report presents the #iwill Fund Learning Hub’s work to understand the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic, and associated restrictions, on the delivery of #iwill-Funded youth social action up to October 2020. As this report shows, the necessary innovation shown across many of the #iwill Fund projects shows some promising new approaches, as well as some new learning on how digital can make delivery and engagement harder. This learning is important in understanding the impact of the #iwill Fund, and in developing high-quality youth social action for the future, both under ongoing pandemic conditions, and further ahead.

Revisiting Place in Youth Social Action

This report returns to the theme of ‘place’, and how it has been used to shape funding for youth social action within the #iwill Fund. Through interviews with Match Funders, the report considers how they understand place in their work, and what they think the impact of this approach has been. They also look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the importance of place in funding.

Revisiting Place in Youth Social Action (summary)

Summary of the Revisiting Place in Youth Social Action full report.

New Directions for Youth Social Action

This report focuses on two specific strands of work emerging from the #iwill Fund: Work to trial youth social action in organisations without a track record of working with either young people, or social action, or both.

#iwill Fund Learning Hub Data Review 1

This is the Learning Hub’s first review of the learning and data being generated by the #iwill Fund – drawing on the Information Management System, evaluation and learning reports share by Match Funders, and the ongoing work of the Learning Hub. Over time, we’re using this information to answer some of the most important questions around youth social action.

#iwill Fund Learning Hub Data Review 2

This is the Learning Hub’s second review of the learning and data being generated by the #iwill Fund – drawing on the Information Management System, evaluation and learning reports share by Match Funders, and the ongoing work of the Learning Hub. Over time, we’re using this information to answer some of the most important questions around youth social action.

#iwill Fund Learning Hub Data Review 3

This is the third data review produced by the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. The purpose of these reviews is to synthesise the learning that is being generated and documented by the #iwill Fund and Match Funders with existing and emerging evidence outside the Fund. These data reviews seek to harness this activity to capture and disseminate valuable learning for the field. This paper particularly focuses on How do youth social action programmes supported through the #iwill Fund (plan to) achieve outcomes for young people? This was taken from pre-Covid evaluation reports.

Initial Report on the Second Impact Accelerator Cohort

This is the initial insights paper for the second cohort, who commenced the Impact Accelerator in September 2019. In this paper, we covers insights that have been collected from the first two phases of the Impact Accelerator, and our reflections on how insights from this cohort are supporting learning from the previous cohort.

Report on the third #iwill Fund Learning Hub Labstorms

LabStorms were adopted, within the #iwill Fund Learning Hub, to foster ongoing, deeper collaboration between Match Funders, with the aim of enabling a system of effective youth social action funding to be continued beyond 2023.

This report draws out the key themes from the third round of LabStorms for the #iwill Fund Learning Hub, which took place online on 28 October 2020 and involved a smaller group of Match Funders.

Second #iwill Fund Learning Hub LabStorms

This report was produced by the College to provide insight into the second round of ‘LabStorms’ held as part of the Learning Hub in February 2020. LabStorms are collaborative problem-solving exercises that enable #iwill Fund Match Funders to identify and address potentially common problems. The second round of LabStorms involved a discussion on youth voice and a discussion on the concept of place in youth social action.

Organisations Delivering Youth Social Action within the #iwill Fund

This paper maps some of the organisations receiving support from the #iwill Fund Match Funders against organisational ‘type’ and looks at the implications for the quality and sustainability of the youth social action delivered. Recommendations are made on how Match Funders and the #iwill Fund can respond to these implications. This paper follows on from a previous report looking at the integration of youth social action and ‘all-ages’ social action.

Building Confidence: Final Report on the First Impact Accelerator Cohort

Building on the initial cohort one report published by Generation Change in April 2019, this paper sets out a summary of the work undertaken, and lessons learned by the first cohort of organisations engaged in the Impact Accelerator. It then sets out key recommendations for the development of the programme, informed and guided by this learning.

Towards A Typology of Youth Social Action

Report produced as part of the Sector Evidence Plan workstream.

Key learning from the last 12 months

​This document summarises high-level learning from the #iwill Fund Learning Hub’s first year of work – covering outcomes for young people and communities, closing the youth social action participation gap, and how funders can support youth social action.

Report on the first #iwill Fund Learning Hub LabStorms

This report was produced by the College to provide insight into the first round of ‘LabStorms’ held as part of the Learning Hub in June 2019. LabStorms are collaborative problem-solving exercises that enable #iwill Fund Match Funders to identify and address potentially common problems. The report explores key learning generated from the discussions and some potential opportunities for funders moving forwards.

Youth Social Action and Outcomes for Young People

This paper, by the Dartington Service Design Lab, reviews research evidence on outcomes for young people from participation in youth social action, drawing out implications for stakeholders in the #iwill Fund as well as the wider youth sector.

Community Benefit and Youth Social Action

This paper, by the Dartington Service Design Lab, aims to help funders and providers think about how their youth social action programmes can achieve and measure benefit. The paper summarises measurement frameworks, including a new one from Dartington.

Exploring Integration of Youth Social Action and ‘All-Ages’ Social Action

This paper looks at how well ‘youth social action’ is integrated with ‘all-ages social action’ and whether there is scope for further integration to increase the impact and sustainability of social action. ​This report was produced as part of Dartington’s Service Design Lab’s work leading the #iwill Fund Learning Hub.

Impact Accelerator Initial Insights

This paper was authored by Generation Change, who led the initial delivery of The Impact Accelerator. The College took on all aspects of delivering this programme in August 2019. This is the initial insights paper for the first cohort, which commenced the Impact Accelerator in October 2018, and have completed nearly half of the 12-month process. It covers insights that have been collected from the first two phases of the Impact Accelerator, along with learning from the recruitment, selection and participation to date of organisations taking part in the scheme.

The Socio-Economic Participation Gap in Youth Social Action

This paper explores the gap in youth social action participation based on young people’s socio-economic status. The paper presents what is known about the gap in participation, the likely drivers of the gap and potential effective approaches to recruiting more young people from lower socio-economic groups. This report was produced as part of Dartington’s Service Design Lab’s work leading the #iwill Fund Learning Hub.

Increasing Youth Social Action in Place

In the context of the ‘Systems Mapping’ workstream, Renaisi and the Lab worked with #iwill Fund Match Funders, and delivery organisations to understand the ways in which ‘place’ can be a useful strategy in developing, and supporting, more youth social action opportunities. The report makes recommendations for funders to work in ‘place-informed’ ways to embed youth social action sustainably.

Increasing Youth Social Action in Education

This report was produced, in partnership with Renaisi, as part of Dartington’s Service Design Lab’s work leading the #iwill Fund Learning Hub. In the context of the ‘Systems Mapping’ workstream, we worked with #iwill Fund Match Funders, education professionals, and delivery organisations to understand the barriers and opportunities towards establishing youth social action in schools, and the responses funders could make.

Increasing Youth Social Action in Education (abridged)

This is an abridged version of the report produced in the context of the ‘Systems Mapping’ workstream, in partnership with Renaisi, as part of Dartington's Service Design Lab's work leading the #iwill Fund Learning Hub.