Measuring the impact of a Community Anchor Organisation

The Bromley by Bow Centre

This is Canary Wharf

This is the Olympic Stadium

This is Bromley by Bow

Where is this?

This is Charles Booth

He was a social researcher

In 1889 he created a poverty map of London

One of the hotspots of deprivation was Bromley by Bow

It still is

This is Bromley by Bow today?

» child poverty

» chronic ill-health

» chronic under-achievement in education

» over-crowded and poor quality housing

» high unemployment

» gang warfare and drug dealers

» debt collectors and the informal economy

» domestic violence and racism

But this is also Bromley by Bow

And this is Bromley by Bow too

Last Wednesday

Last Friday

What does the Bromley by Bow Centre do?

» Bromley by Bow CentreIndependent charity £4m turnover, 150 staffOperating on 23 sites 2,500 clients per weekLearning Centre – Day care Centre – Social Welfare Centre – Arts Centre - Integrated health programmes – Legal service – Financial Capability – Employment serviceBeyond Business - incubated 41 social businesses in 7 years, 35 still trading. Turnover in excess of £4 million and created over 250 jobs

» GP Practice3/4 sites with over 23,000 patients and turnover in excess of £4m – including a seven day per week 8am – 8pm walk-in service

» And Bromley by Bow Church in Community, Bow Childcare and Poplar HARCA and FoodCycle

Why we wanted to measure our impact?

» The increasing role of the third sector in delivering public services in deprived areas

» Policy interest and public sector investment in local community anchor organisations as a distinctive form of organisation

» Increase effectiveness in community anchor organisations nationally through the application of newly created measurement tools, including frameworks to measure some of the “softer” added value of third sector organisations

What we saw as the benefits of measuring our impact?

» Institutional stock-take, institutional learning» Revisiting Values, Vision, Mission» Reviewing our Centre proposition, our theory of change,

importance of integration, access, long journeys » Defining key factors that support long term change, the

outcomes that are so often overlooked » Engaging programme teams with their wider work, defining

what is important, creating programme outcome frameworks» Data, using organisational data to better understand our

provision» Creating more integrated data systems» Energising the team, on-going training and development» Understanding what is effective and what could be improved

Challenges to measuring our impact?Questions to consider…how we can» Create standardised outcome indictors?

A challenge faced by charities for many years has been the lack of standardisation among funders in their monitoring and reporting requirements

» Create indicators that recognise? - The intentions of community anchor organisations- That the whole is greater than the sum of the parts - A community is not simply a collection of individuals, with individual outcomes- People’s lives don’t have episodic, project related, beginnings and ends

» Construct frameworks that reconcile? The ambition of community anchor organisations’ remits around community development with the roles and influence of other ‘actors’, economic cycles and macro ebbs and flows requires careful consideration

there’s a big thing about integration not co-location

there’s something about how leadership works

there’s a whole thing about how you make public services accessible

there’s a thing about being the John Lewis of the social sector

there’s something about how leadership works

we don’t like signs and CCTV cameras

we like loitering with intent

there’s a massive thing about trust; and generosity; and allowing people to make mistakes; and valuing creativity and imagination

There’s no rocket science but a lot of common sense

We try hard to keep things simple and not tie ourselves in red tape

“assume its possible”

we’re here to remove the label “deprived” from our community

Supporting our community’s empowerment to transform is the most important thing we do