BIG Local is a lottery funded scheme that has given 150 deprived locations across England £1m to bring about positive change for communities. The money needs to be spent over 10 years on activities and initiatives that have been identified and led by local people. This is very much as community led programme.
Resources for Change has been participating in a support programme to help the BIG Local partnerships measure the impact of the change their funded activities have made in the community. We have been supporting two communities; Par Bay in Cornwall, and Arley and Ansley in the Midlands, to plan for and carry out more effective evaluation. This includes working flexibly with the communities to help them decide evaluation priorities, train and mentor people to carry out better monitoring, and helping them to learn from the information they gather.
It is hoped that through taking a community led approach to evaluation as well as project delivery, the legacy of BIG Local in any particular area includes local capacity to better understand the process of community led change and the techniques for measuring its impact.