Ecorys have been commissioned by the Big Lottery Fund to evaluate the Reaching Communities Programme in England and Northern Ireland.

Our evaluation is a four year evaluation, commencing in January 2007 and finishing with a final evaluation report in December 2010. Our evaluation methodology involves a mixture of desk research, a web based survey, qualitative case studies, and dissemination activities.

The central aim of the evaluation is:

To assess the effectiveness of projects within the Reaching Communities programmes in England and Northern Ireland in identifying, defining and meeting the needs of the people they aim to benefit.

This website will be available throughout the evaluation to provide information to projects funded under the programme and to enable us to collect information from projects through for example web surveys.

On the website you can find an Evaluation Toolkit specifically designed for project managers and staff delivering Big Lottery funded projects in Reaching Communities. The toolkit will help you understand how to self-evaluate your project, a task which will enable you to share your learning and good practice with others as well as showcase your project’s work as part of Ecorys’ wider programme evaluation of Reaching Communities.

For any information relating to your Reaching Communities grant you should contact your Big Lottery Fund grant officer.

If you have any queries please email reaching.communities@uk.ecorys.com