Having first worked with North Yorkshire Council’s Stronger Communities Programme in 2016 to devise a 5 year theory of change that could guide its approach, Skyblue was selected to become the Programme’s Learning Partner. The Programme supports communities to play a greater role in the delivery of services in the county Stronger communities | North Yorkshire County Council.
A formative, independent evaluation was delivered between 2017 and 2022 which helped shape and continuously improve the Programme. The annual evaluation reports are found on this page should you have an interest in the methods, learning and resultant outcomes that were achieved.
The Learning Partner role encompassed much more than the evaluation though; it allowed Skyblue to use its other skills and knowledge to inform the preparation of the Programme’s longer term ‘People, Place, Power’ strategy to 2030 exploring ways in which community capacity can grow, how gaps (inequalities) can be narrowed and how more community-led place based social action can be encouraged.
In 2024, North Yorkshire Council was formed, and this included a comprehensive restructure. The Stronger Communities Programme – its work and intentions – now form part of a much wider Localities Service that will reach, understand, support and influence a range of existing and new target groups. Skyblue is delighted to continue being the Learning Partner for this expanded service and supporting its ambitions for the future.
Skyblue competed a feasibility study exploring the potential of Participatory Grantmaking for North Yorkshire and York in 2024. The study identified it as a tool that - with the right preconditions and readiness in communities - could be a useful method as part of a wider toolkit of approaches that had the potential for increasing participant feelings of empowerment and increased skillsets to make collective decisions in a place or community of interest.
Please feel free to download and use the report, case studies and practical learning from this study, which is useful to anyone who feels part of their role is to empower communities to address things that matter to them; and who are keen to develop different power dynamics around decision-making whilst doing it in a way that is not extractive for anyone involved.
Skyblue has also completed a range of community engagement projects using mixed methods to encourage as many people as possible to engage in local, creative social action. Most recently this has included the ‘LOVE’ Project which stands for Little Ouseburn Village Engagement’. There was a need to determine a community-owned vision for the 150 year old Village Hall and despite the challenges of Covid-19 which meant there could be no face to face contact, half the village participated and the mission to identify energy in the community to take the Hall forward was achieved. Children as young as 6 took part via a colouring competition, and residents as old as 90 gave their views too. A dedicated site has been created which brings the learning from this whole process together in one place www.skyblue.org.uk/love.
In association with Paul Rhodes Consulting, Skyblue is supporting the learning review of the Hartlepool Social Action Lab, one of a number of projects that form part of the DCMS’ Place Based Social Action Programme (PBSA) in the UK. Evaluating place based social action is a fulfilling and creative process where the community decides for themselves what success looks like by when, and our role is to work alongside them to help develop their capabilities whether that be in advising on research, data or evidence collection processes or supporting them as experts to conduct objective resident surveys that can be benchmarked against wider data such as the Community Life Survey.
In association with Sue Vasey Consulting, Skyblue delivered a review of the East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s response to COVID in 2021, with a specific focus on how it deployed Council resources in 9 ‘Hub’ catchments, alongside interactions with other partners and the voluntary and community sector. The review has been used to inform future approaches to resilience planning as well as to support the locality based work of community development staff working in the county. The review found that each catchment had very different contexts, assets and characteristics that would therefore require diverse hub responses and evolution in future.
Skyblue seeks to support the VCSE sector in three ways; first, by undertaking research and evaluation that can influence investment to the sector’s benefit; second, by providing direct organisational development support for VCSEs in specific areas of expertise including the ability to demonstrate impact to stakeholders (please see ‘Stronger Organisations’ section of this site); and thirdly, by supporting the skills and capabilities of the VCSE infrastructure organisation(s) in North Yorkshire (consultancy):
Recent and current research includes:
Download the final report 2022
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Skyblue helped Community First Yorkshire understand the impact of Covid-19 on the VCSE sector through a series of surveys and supporting analysis that highlighted the challenges and opportunities at that time. This helped conversations amongst strategic partners to assist with recovery planning and joint investment when the sector was at its most fragile.
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