Impact & Learning

Key achievements

• 263 community sessions were delivered across visual arts, poetry, movement, music for over 7,000 people.
• 27 local events were supported, including Pop-Up Cafes, fetes and celebrations.
• 3 Outdoor Cinemas were hosted, with over 500 people attending the September 2023 screening.
• 600 art packs were delivered to local residents, for people to get creative at home.
• 11 partnerships were developed across community venues, schools and care homes.
• 40,000 Canley Newsletters were compiled and distributed across 10 issues to all homes in the area.
• 3 Canley Parades were hosted, gaining momentum over each iteration. The final Spirit-funded parade in June 2023 saw 130 residents joining in to walk the parade route, waved on by 280 more from doorsteps and the pavement.
• Increased pride for residents in the community and their place within it, rising from 65% to 92% feeling positively.

• 43% more residents noted a higher happiness level and 97% of participants answered that they felt better about their life and future as a result of being involved in this project.

Key learning

Valuable learning was gained through each of the funded projects and can be read in more detail in the project reports. Challenges included ambitious bidding without the necessary local infrastructure, unclear definitions of ‘infrastructure’ and under-developed partnerships. Collectively, Neighbourly Lab outlined lessons from the Volunteering Cities projects in their final report, summarised below.

Partnerships:

• Sustainable collaboration took time, careful planning and trust building with local, often small, organisations and partners.

• Council involvement was often impacted by external pressures such as from COVID-19 and cost-of-living.
• Many cultural organisations lacked capacity or understanding to take advantage of volunteer support and sometimes needed coaching and support on volunteer management.
• Tensions existed with larger volunteer organisations wary of competition. Focusing on hyper-local groups often proved more effective.

Accessibility:

• Prioritising inclusion from the beginning, through allocated staff and resources, led to wider reach and a more consistent experience for volunteers.
• Incorporating social and in-person activities (such as coffee mornings, buddy systems) helped make participation more inclusive and was valued by volunteers.

Diversifying Volunteers:

• Creative outreach strategies increased the diversity and retention of volunteers, but measuring outcomes was challenging. Collecting demographic data proved complex and raised concerns over intrusiveness.

Delivery, set-up and legacy:

• Delivery teams faced the realities of building infrastructure from scratch. Hiring, outreach, training, policy development, and coordination were more time-consuming than anticipated and targets in the bids were often over-ambitious.
• While projects all demonstrated strong groundwork, sustaining infrastructure post-grant remained a challenge. Transition planning and external funding are essential to sustain gains beyond the Spirit grant period.
• Funders supporting projects of this nature should support honesty about limitations at the application stage and encourage transparent reflection of challenges.