Evaluating Inspiring Futures

As a rapid response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we delivered a series of grants through the Inspiring Futures Fund in partnership with BBC Children in Need to support young people through this challenging time.

Funding was targeted at projects that work with young people who experience discrimination or disadvantages that create short or long-term barriers to employment, especially those whose journeys towards employment had been further hit by Covid-19.

A year on, we are reflecting on the effectiveness of the fund following the first phase of the in-depth evaluation.

Cordis Bright, an independent research consultancy, have been commissioned to evaluate the success of the Inspiring Futures programme. Key evaluation activities include: 

• Scoping phase with key stakeholders
• Thematic workshops with grantholders, exploring themes such as effective practice in the pandemic and supporting children and young people towards employment pathways.  
• Depth research with grantholders and programme participants 
• Quantitative analysis of reported programme outcomes 

All of this evaluation work has been supported by the Youth Reference Group (YRG), seven young people aged 18-24. They played a vital role in decision making for initial programme funding, commissioning the evaluation and developing the evaluation approach. They now support the evaluation activities by developing materials, providing feedback, and delivering parts of the research. They also create content about their experiences: you can find more information about the YRG members and their experiences here.

Check back for future evaluation outputs, which will include blog post, videos and podcasts.

Read the scoping report here.

Read the scoping phase summary here.