There are three key elements that ensure social impact programmes work:
- knowing the evidence of what works
- expertise in social impact programme methods
- experience of working with social impact programmes and their providers.
STRIDE is uniquely positioned at the interface between these three elements. Evidence is the foundation of doing things that work. Evidence comes from quality social science research produced in leading Higher Education Institutions such as Queen’s University Belfast. At STRIDE we are surrounded by the latest evidence of what works for social impact.
STRIDE believes that there are three reasons why social impact programmes don’t work or can even cause harm. Fortunately, there are methods to create social impact programmes that work.
- Poor Design. Good intentions are not enough. Good design is produced by evidence-based methods such as logic modelling and systematic reviews.
- Poor implementation. A literacy programme from inner City London may not work in a South African township. The methods of participatory co-design solve this problem.
- Poor evaluation. Too often evaluations only measure outputs such as how many people attended. We need to measure outcomes, that is, how does the programme actually improve people’s lives. The use of control groups and particularly methods such as randomised controlled trials (RCTs) tell us what works, what doesn’t work and what causes harm.