The Sure Start Mellow Valley area Through the lens of a camera

This report gives an account of a participatory evaluation conducted using photography within the Sure Start Mellow Valley area. Information about the current status of the Sure Start programme and the plans for the future are first provided. The report then describes the research that was undertaken and presents and discusses the findings

The Distance Learning Experience: Evaluating the Needs of Post-Graduate Students.

To provide successful and sustainable distance learning courses it is important to identify and understand the various needs and preferences of our ‘dispersed and diverse learning populations’ (Davidson & Goldberg, 2010:2). This presentation will report on the findings of an evaluation designed to explore the needs and experiences of Masters students undertaking a distance learning course. The MSc Public Health – Health Promotion distance learning course is in its infancy having started on-line in the autumn of 2014. The course recruits from a number of different countries across the world bringing students virtually together from a range of different professional and academic backgrounds to study health promotion. Translating traditional, face to face courses into distance learning provision needs to be done with students’ circumstances and learning needs in mind. Keen to ascertain how students are finding the experience of distance learning, members of the teaching team have carried out an evaluation of the student experience. The overall aim of the evaluation was to explore the needs and experiences of the students on the programme. The specific objectives were to a) explore the students’ experiences on the course; 2) to assess the students’ learning and professional development needs and curriculum inclusivity and 3) to identify recommendations for strengthening inclusiveness on distance learning courses. In order to achieve this a qualitative approach was adopted. All students on the programme were invited to take part in an in-depth interview with an independent interviewer external to the course team. Interviews took place via telephone or Skype over a period of two months. The data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. The presentation will report on the initial findings from the data which are indicative of areas of success and areas for development and improvement. The focus will be on how students’ diverse needs and expectations can be met and managed within a distance learning environment

Evaluating a gender-specific intensive intervention programme: young women's voices and experiences.

Disadvantaged young women in England have been documented as having unmet needs. This has resulted in the growth of gender-specific intensive intervention programmes in which a more holistic women-centred service approach is still being implemented. Gender matters because structural inequalities (bias and disadvantaging societal conditions) that girls are born into influences health, their outcomes and associated inequalities. Policy-makers frequently call for the outcomes of intervention programmes to be quantified and whilst this is important it can miss opportunities for critical insights into the subjective experiences of participants as well as the context and circumstances within which change occurs. This paper reports evaluation findings from a prototype project (The Way Forward) with a remit focused upon holistic improvement, using gender specific methods and approaches to promote health for disadvantaged young women within a community setting. This paper documents the voices of young women within the project, illustrated through their creation of storyboards within focus group discussions, and interview data from their support workers (Engagement Workers). Findings illustrate the importance of the relational dimension of one to one support in achieving future positive changes in the lives of young women, as well as the complexity associated with attempts to improve their health. This paper therefore presents the young women’s perspectives and experiences as well as an accompanying narrative discussing how the service enabled them to make health-related improvements with its main contribution being in the user voices

Using storyboards in participatory research.

Aim To draw on the authors’ experience of using storyboards in focus groups conducted with vulnerable young women. Background Creative methods are increasingly used in qualitative research as a means of generating richer data and of promoting more meaningful participation. This paper presents an argument for using storyboards in focus group discussions and draws on real life research with young women by way of illustration. Review Methods This is a methodology paper Discussion This paper discussed the authors’ experiences of using storyboards in participatory research. This approach has a number of advantages such as promoting participation and engagement, empowering participants and, enabling them to take more control over the research process. The theoretical and philosophical position of the authors is outlined – namely a feminist approach to research. The data collection method is then described in detail outlining each stage of the process step by step. Conclusion Using creative techniques within more traditional qualitative approaches may lead to further in-depth data as well as increased participation. Such approaches could be of value in nursing research in which patients, clients and service user perspectives are often vitally important

Evaluation Framework Review Open Doors: Help through Crisis (GIPSL and Getaway Girls)

The Open Doors, Help Through Crisis Project (HTC) was set up in 2017 as a partnership approach between three third sector, community based organisations within Harehills and Gipton. The three partner organisations are: 1. GIPSIL (Gipton Supported Independent Living Limited), providing accommodation and housing-related support, an advice service and support to access and sustain employment, education and training, principally to young people (16-24); 2. Archway Resource Centre in Harehills (a project of Renew), providing 1-1 support, counselling, family work and mediation services as well as floating support to young people living independently; 3. Getaway Girls in Harehills, enabling vulnerable young women aged 11-25 to build confidence, develop new skills and take positive risks in an environment which offers co-operation and support. This report presents the findings from an evaluation framework review of Open Doors (HLC) conducted by the Centre for Health Promotion Research, Leeds Beckett University. It presents evidence about our methodological review and recommendations that emerge from this

Neoliberal salvation through a gendered intervention: A critical analysis of vulnerable young women's talk.

Within the United Kingdom (UK) in recent years, disadvantaged young women have been documented as having unmet needs and experiencing inequalities resulting from their gender. Gendered social divisions are important because the structural inequalities that girls are born into influence their life chances. In response, UK policy-makers have funded intensive interventions for these ‘at-risk’ young women. This paper presents a post-structuralist, feminist analysis of young women’s talk about their journeys through a gendered support project. The project was specifically women-centred and aimed to promote early intervention and resilience working with relatively disadvantaged young women defined as being in risky life circumstances. The project used holistic, individually-focused, wrap-around support systems to engage vulnerable young women and meet their specific needs. Focus groups were carried out with the young women using creative methods of data collection. The young women were asked to make a storyboard illustrating their journey through the project and the impact it had had on them. They were then encouraged to reflect on, and talk about, their experiences. The young women took up various discourses in order to make sense of their life experiences and their involvement in the project. These include neoliberal discourses such as talk of self-improvement, reinvention and aspirations of self-control. The social and political implications of the analysis are discussed including a key argument that the young women’s discursive practices reinforce hegemonic gendered identities, neoliberal ideology and existing structural inequalities

An evaluation of the Department of Health’s Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund

The Health and Social Care Volunteering Fund (HSCVF) is an innovative programme that was established in 2009 by the Department of Health (DH) to build organisational and community capacity for volunteering through a national and local grant scheme. The HSCVF has offered both funds and tailored support to health and social care projects delivered by Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations. The HSCVF is managed by a partnership led by Ecorys and with expertise from leading national voluntary sector organisations: Attend, Community Service Volunteers (CSV) and Primetimers. To date the HSCVF has funded a total of 157 local and national projects, of which 114 are currently live. This report presents findings from an evaluation of the HSCVF with a specific focus on the 2010/2011 national and local projects, conducted by a team from the Institute for Health & Wellbeing at Leeds Metropolitan University. It presents evidence on the extent to which, how and in what ways the HSCVF programme has built organisational and community capacity across the national and local HSCVF projects, as well as on the health and social outcomes that resulted

Spread of Infectious Diseases with a Latent Period

Infectious diseases spread through human networks. Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) model is one of the epidemic models to describe infection dynamics on a complex network connecting individuals. In the metapopulation SIR model, each node represents a population (group) which has many individuals. In this paper, we propose a modified metapopulation SIR model in which a latent period is taken into account. We call it SIIR model. We divide the infection period into two stages: an infected stage, which is the same as the previous model, and a seriously ill stage, in which individuals are infected and cannot move to the other populations. The two infectious stages in our modified metapopulation SIR model produce a discontinuous final size distribution. Individuals in the infected stage spread the disease like individuals in the seriously ill stage and never recover directly, which makes an effective recovery rate smaller than the given recovery rate.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure