Evaluation and Research
Research
Research and evaluation remain important to the Beth Johnson Foundation (BJF). It helps us to learn; it drives what we do, provides an evidence base to our work, and informs and influences our current thinking and future agendas.
Since our early days as an adult learning organisation, we have produced action research reports on challenges and opportunities facing the older population. Research Reports
We have been fortunate to have partnered with other organisations to highlight issues that were outside of the range of everyday discussion such as the ‘Our Voices’ report highlighting ageing without children and the ‘Giving a Voice report’ highlighting our pioneering work around advocacy.
We are often approached to provide expert advice on other peoples’ research projects and our older community members take part in focus groups and questionnaires to help with the design and delivery of this work.
We are often asked to post research information as an aid to participant recruitment and involvement in research aligned to our own ethos and values.
We have strong links with our two local Universities (Keele and Staffordshire) and with other academic institutions outside of the area (e.g. The Universities of Salford and Manchester; University of Westminster).
Currently, we are linking with partners on the following topics of interest:
- Older people in the LGBTQ+ communities (OLGBT North Midlands)
- Older people and the barriers to digital inclusion (Keele University)
- Older people and mental health (Keele University)
- Later life inequalities and social exclusion in older people living with HIV (University of Westminster)
We welcome potential partners to get in touch with us with research proposals to explore. We will be particularly pleased to hear about opportunities to further investigate the topics covered in our newly launched ‘Current Issues’ page which will highlight areas around ageing that we think need further research.
To view Previous Research Reports published by BJF please visit our Research Reports page.
‘The best research you can do is talk to people’
Sir Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015
Evaluation
As a learning organisation, we constantly seek ways to learn from our work through explicit evaluation which enables us to assess what works well and to apply that knowledge to the design and development of our existing and future projects. We use co-production techniques to ensure that our older community members are involved at all stages of our evaluation processes. We are committed to engaging and involving our older community members and are currently establishing a BJF wide advisory group involving older people, so that access to important ageing voices is readily available.
We are also gaining a reputation as the Evaluation Partner to the work of other organisations; being able to evaluate specific pieces of work within the overall context of the Voluntary and Community Sectors in Stoke on Trent and North Staffordshire. We are establishing an Evaluation Team at BJF lead by staff, informed by our older community members and with support from local academic partners (where appropriate). This means that external partners will have easy access to a knowledgeable, experienced evaluation team should they want an independent evaluation of their work.
Evaluations are customised according to the needs of each organisation, but to provide examples of costs, a twelve month evaluation is likely to cost around. £3,000, a three years evaluation is likely to cost around £9,000. (Please note these are just general estimates and will change according to the specific hours and approaches required).
Please get in touch with us to discuss your specific evaluation needs and costings.
‘Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.’
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955
To find out more about the services on this page:
Contact us using our online form, or call us on: +44 (0)1782 844036