NICVA has been facilitating the development of an Impact Practice Network in Northern Ireland to help voluntary and community groups show the difference they make.
As part of the Network's commitment to sharing knowledge and good practice with the sector, we asked Kate McCauley, CEO of Housing Rights to share their impact journey, and what they have learned that could help others.
Housing Rights believe that everyone should have a home, and they work tirelessly to keep people in their homes and help them with their housing problems.
Why Housing Rights measure impact:
- Want to know how they are making a difference
- Funder interest
- Accountability to communities we serve and to other stakeholders
- Assists in decision making
How Housing Rights measure impact:
- How much did we do?
- How well did we do it?
- Is anyone better off?
Housing Rights have made this work for them by applying a Theory of Change approach to their work, which is supported by an Outcomes Based Approach to measure change.
As an organisation, they have worked hard to keep their approach to impact simple. They do this using a series of surveys, project logs and evaluations.
Housing Rights’ Impact
As an organisation, they annually communicate their impact, and you can view their impact card here: Impact Report 2022-2023 (housingrights.org.uk)
This work reveals the far impact of work of Housing Right, including:
- 1027 households were prevented from becoming homeless
- 12,825 people were given advice, advocacy and representation
- 1846 landlords were provided with advice
- Housing Rights delivered housing training to almost 1,000 people
Of those clients who used Housing Right’s helpline during the year, 9 out of 10:
- were better informed to make appropriate housing choices
- had an improved sense of wellbeing
- reported that their housing circumstances had improved
What Housing Rights have learned from their impact journey:
- Needs to be a part of our work, not an ‘add on’
- Build capacity in impact knowledge within your team
- Decide who is responsible, integrate processes into the annual work programme & to your policies and procedures
- Work hard to keep it simple
- Measure what matters
- It is important to have a degree of robustness
- Communicate your impact – externally and internally
Housing Rights and impact:
“At Housing Rights we care about measuring the impact of our work and we are pleased to be working with other organisations in the sector to share what we’ve learned so far – and to learn from others. Initiatives like the Impact Practice Network help continue the culture of best practice in impact measurement and we are delighted to be involved.”
If you would like to get involved with the Impact Practice Network, sign up to attend our next meeting at: Impact Practice Network meeting: - Get Involved and influence the change! In Person at NICVA | NICVA Or if you have any other questions about impact get in touch with us at: [email protected]
