Key learnings
Evaluators of City to Sea conducted interviews with participants, their parents/carers, TWP staff, and referral partners, and identified learning from these. Some of these are outlined below.
Inclusive sessions benefit all
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the inclusivity of sessions had a positive impact on all involved. Evaluators found this enabled young people to learn everyone is not the same and they each face different challenges – physical, mental and emotional – and these can sit alongside one another in the group. The evaluators noted that successful development looked different for different people and recommended it should be celebrated equally. “A young person might not engage in conversation at all at the beginning of a course, but by the end be willing to answer questions when asked. This is just as important as a young person who by the end of the six weeks actively seeks to make conversation and interact off their own initiative with their peers and volunteers.”
Key to success was equipping staff and volunteers with the skills to work with people with a variety of needs, enabling them to feel confident working with any young person.
Developing trust with referral partners
Referral partners were very positive about their involvement with City to Sea, and one said, “there’s nothing like the Wave Project.” Trust in the Wave Project was key, both in their ability to deliver outcomes and to develop positive relationships with clients. Working in a sensitive way and giving one-to-one support were important, and referral partners had confidence that TWP would follow up and develop trust with the clients to help them take part and get to sessions.
“The culture of confidence and communication gives voice to young people. I think we will get our young people to talk about the barriers they had and show how that changed, like…I was really scared at first etc.’ so that the other young people can identify with them and relate to them.”
“Travelling from City to Sea is not a barrier, it is an asset”: Connection to new places and the environment, and a sense of novelty and adventure
City to Sea involved transporting clients from inner-city London to a beach on the south coast to participate in sea and shoreline activities. It took effort to organise travel, but the idea of visiting a new place and the excitement of going to the sea was a huge draw for both young people and for volunteers.
“It is a 2-hour drive, but it is not a chore for the kids. Everyone loves it… They forge friendships on the bus. The bus provides a space for the children to chill.”
Courses often combined both city and sea experiences, as sometimes bad weather necessitated a session in London. In both cases, there was a sense of ‘connection to other places’, either through travelling to the sea or visiting new places within the city, such as the lakeside surf club.
Many participants had never visited the beach, and some were fascinated by the new sensory elements of sea, waves, seaweed and sand. As one referral partner noted, “Getting their faces under the water is amazing for their confidence.”
Evaluators noted that the sense of novelty and adventure associated with these new locations – described as “a sanctuary, and special place, away from the norm” – was very valuable to the project, and that referral partners saw this as one of the main draws for the young people. The travel experience itself was seen as a transformative achievement: “Travelling to the sea led to a sense of ‘transformation’ in young people, and a journey, in their imagination and expression. On the journey home in the bus, young people talked about and drew sea creatures, both real and imaginary.”
PBE Wellbeing Cost Effectiveness Analysis
City to Sea was one of three projects examined as part of PBE’s ‘Helping Funders Measure What Matters’ report, which sought to understand Spirit’s impact as a funder on wellbeing measurement, providing lessons for funders.
The study found that there was insufficient data to complete a robust economic cost-benefit analysis on City to Sea. However, it was still a useful case study of the conclusions which can be drawn when more limited information is available – even though there is no robust ‘benefit cost ratio’, they were able to carry out break-even analysis and communicate value for money scenarios.
PBE found:
- With an average participant wellbeing of 6.3 at the start of the project, compared to a national average of around 7.6 for young people aged 10-17, The Wave Project was effectively targeting those with lower wellbeing.
- On average, wellbeing was reported 0.8 life satisfaction points higher after the six-week Surf Therapy course. A strong caveat is that the reported wellbeing before and after were not necessarily from the same individuals. We could have a bias if those seeing the biggest improvements were more likely to have responded to the follow-up survey. In addition, we cannot be confident how much can be attributed to the programme as opposed to other changes occurring in people’s lives. The duration of benefits is also uncertain. Wellbeing was only measured at the end of the six-week programme, but the benefits could have persisted for over three months, based on evaluations of other similar programmes.
- With the information available, we carried out a wellbeing ‘break-even analysis’, where we explore these uncertainties in scenarios.
- Despite the limitations in the evidence available at the time and resulting uncertainties, we estimate that City to Sea is likely to offer good value for money across a range of scenarios.
Read the full report here.
