Most heritage projects involve a range of groups and individuals. People may have different views about why the project is important and what it should aim to achieve. Combining these views into a shared vision is one of the secrets of success. And a good way of doing this is to start the evaluation process early. If you are going to measure your project’s success once it’s finished, you need to begin with clear targets. This kind of evaluation is often called ‘formative evaluation’ – it helps to shape your project.
Once your evaluation process has been set up, you will be able to check as you go along whether your project is meeting its aims. Think of this as ‘interim evaluation’. For this you can use activities like the Poster Evaluation exercise. Other useful sources include on-the-spot feedback from visitors and obser vation by project volunteers.
Setting the scene
"Set up your evaluation process right from the beginning," is the message from Common Voices. This local heritage project based in Clapham, London, was about bringing different generations together to capture stories about growing up in the area after World War II.
Project Co-ordinator Tricia Holland explains: “We benefited enormously from employing an independent evaluation expert (funded by HLF as part of the project budget), as well as being advised on evaluation by an HLF mentor. We also got some really useful ideas from HLF’s Young Roots project evaluation pack. This kind of preparation meant that we were very clear about the project’s aims. And because our evaluation plan was in place before we started, we could check progress against it right the way through.”
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“Take the opportunity to gather evaluation information during activities like workshops or spoken-history interviews. When children were filming each other as part of the project, we asked them to talk a bit about their views of the project. These comments, recorded on film, later fed into our evaluation.” Tricia Holland, Common Voices
A basis to build on
Viewed from the air, the snaking dry stone walls of Yorkshire’s Upper Colne Valley look like a timeless feature of the landscape. But take a closer look, and you’ll find that many are on the point of collapse.
The Upper Colne Valley Dry Stone Walling project aims to encourage awareness of just how much these traditional walls represent, in terms of community history and environment, and to revive the skills needed to maintain them.
“As a basis for our evaluation,” says Neil Windett, countryside manager at Kirklees Council, “we did a detailed survey of the state of the walls before we started. We took sample areas of one sq km and asked volunteers to grade the walls from one to five, depending on their state of repair. From the local authority, we gathered lots of environmental and social statistics about the district.”
Taken together, all this data gave the project evaluation “a really firm foundation”, observes Neil. “It has enabled us to see whether we’re meeting our targets as the project progresses. And it means that we will end up with accurate measurements of the project’s impact.”
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“Make contact with the relevant people in your local authority. They will have access to lots of information that could be useful for your evaluation. They may also be able to assist with data-management tools, allowing you to track your project’s progress against the targets you have set for it.” Neil Windett, Upper Colne Valley Dry Stone Walling project