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Learning about supporting ex-offenders

Looking at what works in supporting ex-offenders - and why.

We have funded various projects in Scotland and across the UK that help people leaving prison to re-integrate into society and to help them avoid offending again.

Our projects have tried different approaches, and we are interested to find out:

  • why groups think that their approach will work,
  • how well those approaches do work, and
  • how groups measure the success of their approach.

We have commissioned Arrivo Consulting to investigate these questions. They are exploring up to 12 of these projects in more detail.

We expect to publish some case studies and a report from the study here in spring 2013. This should help us and others to understand more about how best to support ex-offenders, as well as how funded projects can measure and demonstrate the success of their work.

Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This report considers BIG's experience of contracting or endowing others to run aspects of our grant-making and makes recommendations about doing this more effectively.
This study provides an overview of information and policy on violence against women, notably domestic violence linked to sporting events, gang-related violence involving wormen and girls, and violence during pregnancy.
This report considers how Village SOS has benefited local communities and residents, as well as the implications of running a programme in partnership with a broadcaster.
This report reviews evidence gathered by the 17 well-being portfolios about how far they have improved mental health, physical activity and healthy eating.
This short document highlights some statistical findings about application and award rates for projects relevant to gender-based need.
This report considers factors that contribute to rural isolation and how BIG’s funding in England and Scotland has helped to overcome this type of isolation.
The aim of The Character Inquiry is to investigate the potential of focusing on character, and character development, to help achieve greater levels of wellbeing in society and among individuals or, to put it in rather classical terms, to investigate how building character helps people to live the good life.
This report sets out findings and observations from interviews with front-line groups and specialist and generic support providers. It includes conclusions and recommendations for all interested in this area to consider.
Transition to adulthood can be a major challenge for young people with neurodevelopmental difficulties. This document summarises the key findings from the Big Lottery Fund’s research to identify the main issues experienced by young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or with autism and makes recommendations about how support services could be improved.
Volunteering plays an important role in today’s society in changing people’s lives for the better – by giving a sense of belonging and well-being; by offering the opportunity to give something back to society.
BIG has been one of the main funders of a major research study, ‘Mapping Britain’s unmet needs’, which was published on 7 December 2009. The research offers a fascinating picture of unmet need. It brings together facts and figures about large-scale trends while exploring the reality of individuals’ lives.
This handy document summarises relevant research reports from across a range of social policy and Third Sector areas of interest, which have been published in the last six months.
IG has been one of the main funders of a major research study, ‘Mapping Britain’s unmet needs’, which was published on 7 December 2009. The research offers a fascinating picture of unmet need. It brings together facts and figures about large-scale trends while exploring the reality of individuals’ lives.s
This is the third and final report from the evaluation of the first six years of the initiative. It focuses on progress and learning to date from the Fair Share Trust.
Small Grants Thematic Evaluation In May 2008, the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) commissioned the Policy Studies Institute to conduct a multi-methods evaluation of their small grants programme of funding.
This is a summary of the key findings from the evaluation of the New Opportunities for PE and Sport programme. The evaluation explored the impact of the programme on partnership, participation and wider social change.
This is the final report from the evaluation of the New Opportunities for PE and Sport programme. The evaluation explored the impact of the programme on partnership, participation and wider social change.
The aim of this report is to explore the effectiveness of BIG’s international small grants programme in equipping applicants to make successful applications to larger grant programmes, in particular the International Communities & Tsunami (IC&T) programme.
This was the largest consultation ever carried out by a Lottery distributor, reflecting our position as a body that delivers around half of all Lottery funding to communities across the UK.
This is the final report from the three year evaluation of our cardiac rehabilitation programme. The programme was managed by our award partner, the British Heart Foundation. The report summarises the findings from the evaluation in relation to the programme objectives of increasing uptake and improving the quality of cardiac rehabilitation services.
The People and Places programme was launched in November 2005 and is the largest of the current programmes being delivered by the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) in Wales. It has a total budget of £66 million and has recently been extended to run until the end of 2010.
This document summarises the key evaluation findings from two of the Big Lottery Fund's environmental programmes: Green Spaces and Sustainable Communities and Transforming Waste. The first section of this document highlights the key findings emerging from both evaluations. It then goes on to discuss the key findings from each evaluation separately and finally draws together good practice and lessons learned from both studies.
This document summaries the findings from The People's Millions evaluation report. The evaluation has found that the benefits of applying for funding from The People's Millions included free publicity to raise the public profile of the project, attracting new volunteers or funding, and a more positive impact on community engagement.
This report presents the findings from the evaluation of The People's Millions programme. The aim of the evaluation was to assess the impacts of public involvement in The People's Millions on grant decisions and the prospects, operation and effectiveness of participating projects. The main focus of the evaluation was on the influence and outcomes of public involvement, both on the programme as a whole and on the operation and impact of individual projects.
This document summarises the year two key findings from the Community Sport evaluation. The Community Sport programme is supporting projects in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales that aim to increase uptake of physical activity among disadvantaged groups of people or groups who are currently inactive.
The good practice guides are based on evaluation findings from the evaluation of the legacy Research Grants programme. The guides cover good practice in relation to user involvement, partnership working and dissemination.
The good practice guides are based on evaluation findings from the evaluation of the legacy Research Grants programme. The guides cover good practice in relation to user involvement, partnership working and dissemination.
This is the Final Report of the Evaluation of the Transforming Waste Programme (the Programme). The Report assesses the delivery of the Programme and its impact in terms of social, economic and environmental outcomes. It also provides recommendations to inform future funding programmes for Big Lottery Fund (BIG).
This is the final report from the four and a half year evaluation of our palliative care programme. The report summarises the findings from the evaluation, looking at schemes as they complete their grants, the impacts that services had and the sustainability of schemes post-BIG funding.
This summary details the final key findings from the evaluation of our palliative care programme. The evaluation ended in autumn 2007. The evaluation looks at the new services that were being delivered, how they were delivered and the impact on the quality of life of those who used them.
This summary sets out and discusses the main findings from the second report from the evaluators of the Fair Share initiative. The summary focuses on the Fair Share Trust, which has established funding programmes for up to ten years in defined local areas, and actively engages the community in decisions about how best to sp
This report presents the final findings from the evaluation of the Green Spaces and Sustainable Communities Programme (GSSC), funded by the Big Lottery Fund. The evaluation, which was undertaken by Sally Downs Associates, documents the environmental, social and economic successes of the programme.
This document is a summary of research that the Big Lottery Fund (BIG) commissioned in December 2006 about older people, who we define as being people over the age of 50.
This document is a summary of the research that we commissioned about older people. The aim of the research was to assess the relevance and impact of our funding programmes on older people, explore opportunities for older people in our current funding programmes and identify areas of need where we could potentially make an effective contribution for older people in the future.
In Spring 2007 ORC International, an independent research company, helped us gather information on how well we are doing in meeting the expectations of our key stakeholders in England, their levels of confidence in us as a good funder, and how we are adding value to the work of other agencies and partners.
The evaluation will assess the impact of each of the four country programmes in meeting their aims and outcomes, and will examine the impact of involving young people in all areas of the projects and programmes (from development to evaluation) on young people themselves, communities and projects.
This report covers the second phase of the evaluation of Fair Share, which aims to increase the amount of Lottery funding to some areas that had previously received less than average.
This annex to the final report from the evaluation of Transforming your Space gives full details of all the case studies that took part in the evaluation. There is a wealth of evidence for each, including outcomes and impacts to date, and prospects for the future. This is an annex to the final evaluation report.
This is the final report from the evaluation of the Transforming Your Space initiative across the UK. It considers the impact of TYS as a whole and some of the main lessons learned. It is best read in conjunction with the second full report and the final case-study report.
This is the second annual report from the evaluation of the Cardiac Rehabilitation programme, providing a progress report on the evaluation up to July 2007. The evaluation is based on a rolling survey of projects and case study visits and the report gives an update on interim findings to date.
This document summarises key findings from the New opportunities for PE and sport programme across the UK and includes a section about the impact of the programme in Wales. The full report is also available on the website.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of the NOPES programme on Outcome 5 (the promotion of social inclusion through access to, and use of, sports and outdoor adventure facilities by all groups in society) using existing evaluation data.
In 2005 we commissioned William Solesbury & Associates to review our approach to sharing learning and reports from our evaluation and research work, and to identify ways that we could improve our performance. We have set out our thinking and early progress on the recommendations in a separate response document
This document is the appendix to the main year four PE and sport report and includes details of survey findings from across the UK, Football Foundation case study projects and the findings from the study examining the impact of the programme on disaffected and marginalised youth groups.
The fourth annual report details findings from the PE and sport evaluation across the UK up to February 2007 and includes results from baseline and annual surveys, case study visits and Football Foundation projects. A summary of the report is also available on this site.
This document is a summary of the full PE and sport evaluation report. The summary details key findings from across the UK, including data from surveys and case study visits. It also highlights the main findings from the Scotland activities programme.
This report details findings from the first year of the Community Sport evaluation.The evaluation is examining the impact of the Active Futures programme in Scotland, the Mentro Allan programme in Wales and the Community Sport and Active Lifestyles programme in Northern Ireland
The working paper examines the key lessons from the NOPES Activities programme for the sustainability of time-limited programmes. It is intended that this learning will be useful for a variety of stakeholders in developing future policy and practice in similar time-limited funding programmes.
Involving local communities in our work and making sure the public know and care about our work’ is one of BIG's core values. We recently commissioned SHM, to provide a more sophisticated understanding of what really motivates people to become involved. The piece of work also seeks to provide a greater understanding of how, when and where people wish to be involved.
The report details findings from the evaluation of the cross-distributor lottery funding service. The evaluation aimed to assess the impact of the Lottery Funding service in enabling funding to be more accessible to applicants who are inexperienced in applying for lottery grants.
This is a short version of the Sustainability research report produced by GHK Consulting. It provides a summary of the factors that appear to influence the early indications of sustainability and approaches to supporting sustainability followed by the Big Lottery Fund and other funders.
This report details the final findings from the HLC evaluation. It covers the challenges encountered in implementing the programme, and the impact of the programme on the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities, on community change, on service development and on the legacies left by projects as grants come to an end.
This is the final report from the evaluation of the pilot Regional Health and Physical Activity Coordinator (RHPAC) post in the North West of England. The report assesses the state of physical activity policy and joint working in the NW region after three years of RHPAC operation. It offers recommendations for continuing the post in the NW region, and for others considering similar posts in other regions. A summary report is also available here .
This is the summary report from the evaluation of the pilot Regional Health and Physical Activity Coordinator (RHPAC) post in the North West of England. The report summarises the findings from the full report . The RHPAC post was funded by the Big Lottery Fund. The evaluation was commissioned by Wirral Primary Care Trust and was carried out by a team from Cavill Associates, University of Salford and Loughborough University.
This summary details key findings from the evaluation of two of our heart programmes: cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure support networks. Both programmes are run by our award partner, the British Heart Foundation.
This report contains the findings from the final year of the Do it 4 Real programme evaluation. The programme delivered by YHA has provided residential places for over 21,000 11-17 year olds during 2005 and 2006.
This summary details key findings from the evaluation of our palliative care programme up to July 2006. The evaluation looks at the new services that are being delivered, new ways of delivering services, extending services to reach new groups and the new partnerships that are being developed.
This document gives a brief overview of the findings from what we have learned from our evaluations of programmes for young people, as well as signposting further resources that we have produced for people working in this area.
This research aims to help the Big Lottery Fund, and other grantmakers, understand the nature, benefit, cost and outcome of adding value to grant programmes, beyond standard good practice in grantmaking. It investigates different rationales and methods of doing so, and provides practical recommendations.
The Big Lottery Fund, in partnership with the Imperial War Museum and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council commissioned an evaluation of the Veterans Reunited programme. The final evaluation report details findings from the three strands of the programme: Heroes Return, Their Past Your Future and Home Front Recall. A summary of the report is also available on this website.
This reports details the findings of a short study into approaches taken by BIG (and earlier by the New Opportunities Fund and Community Fund) to promote the sustainability of the activities and benefits resulting from our funding.
This report summarises findings from the fourth year of the HLC evaluation. It focuses on how HLCs work with their communities, improve the health of their communities, and work towards sustainability beyond their current Lottery grant. More detail is given in the Year Four annual report.
This report summarises the key findings from the evaluation of the out of school hours childcare programme and considers implications for future policy and practice it is based on the final 2006 evaluation report.
This report describes the work undertaken during the first year of a three year evaluation of the Big Lottery Fund's Cardiac Rehabilitation Programme. It is intended as a progress report, for administrative purposes.
This document reports of progress across various case-study projects in each country of the UK, and focuses on benefits for communities and various specific stakeholder groups. It also includes a summary of outcomes and progress towards them.
This summary details key findings from the evaluation up until February 2006. The summary states that that the programme is on target to improve physical education and sport in schools and enhance community use. The full report can also be downloaded from the website.
The Get REAL programme was first piloted in the summer of 2003 and provided places for 1,640 young people from three areas of England. This pilot was jointly managed by the New Opportunities Fund, (the predecessor to the Big Lottery Fund) and the Department for Education and Skills.
The Big Lottery Funds Fair Share initiative aims to address disparities in Lottery funding across the UK. The joint initiative was launched by the then Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund in 2001. Since 2003, an independent evaluation has been tracking and assessing the success of two of the programmes making up Fair Share, and this summary outlines findings and progress to date.
The programme has awarded £45 million to over 17,500 projects, benefiting over 11 million people. The evaluation summary details the key findings from our UK-wide evaluation and highlights the impact on communities, partnerships and learning.
This report covers findings from the follow-up mailing of the five a day consumption and evaluation tool (FACET) questionnaire, which took place two years after the first mailing. The report also brings together the other elements of the evaluation.
The 5 A DAY local community initiative aims to encourage people in 66 programme areas to eat at least five portions of fruit or vegetables a day. The Big Lottery Fund made available £150,000 over two years to 66 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).
The 5 A DAY local community initiative aims to encourage people in 66 programme areas to eat at least five portions of fruit or vegetables a day. The Big Lottery Fund made available £150,000 over two years to 66 Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).
This report details the final findings from the evaluation of the Digitisation of learning materials and Community grids for learning programmes. The issues explored include the impact of the programme on organisations, the partnership process, target user groups and lifelong learning and attracting hard-to-reach users.
This report sets out the findings of a four-year evaluation of the Big Lottery Fund Living with Cancer initiative and discusses the implications for policy makers; funders; academics, health and social care professionals; voluntary sector providers; patients and carers. Case study vignettes are provided in full at Appendix 4, to illustrate the evaluation findings.
This report covers the findings from the fourth year of the Healthy living centres evaluation. It includes information about HLC models, approaches and organisation, how HLCs have improved the health and well-being of their users, how HLCs have engaged with and contributed to their communities, and sustainability issues for HLCs.
Health departments across the UK have identified reducing deaths from cancer and improving cancer services as a priority. The Fund's cancer initiative was launched in 1999 and will run until 2005. It was developed in response to targets and important areas for action set out for each country of the UK.
This evaluation report commences with a description of the various methods and tools used as the methodology to generate information to complete the evaluation. It then provides a review of the policy rationale and aims for the programme to provide context for the evaluation.
This report includes the final findings from the three-year evaluation of the CALL ICT learning centres programme.
This document summarises the findings from the first year of the evaluation of Transforming Your Space and explains the methods that the researchers are using to carry out the evaluation.
This discussion paper looks at the concept of risk. It considers how risk needs to handled in order to maximise its benefits, and how it applies to the Big Lottery Fund with its many stakeholder expectations.
This report covers the main findings from the final phase the children and dietary evaluation tool (CADET) food diaries, the pupil questionnaire and the case study visits as well as focusing on an exploration of what, if any, change over time has occurred.
Despite the number of different funders and the significant amount of other funds the TYS funding was seen to be fundamental. The TYS funding appeared to be the catalyst in levering in and securing other funding sources. The TYS funds provided assurance to funders and monies against which other funding could be matched.
Palliative care is the active holistic care of patients with advanced, progressive illness. Management of pain and other symptoms and provision of psychological, social and spiritual support is paramount. The goal of palliative care is achievement of the best quality of life for patients and their families.
This report covers the first year of the evaluation of the Digitisation of learning materials and Community grids for learning programmes. The issues explored include the impact of the programme on organisations, the partnership process, target user groups and lifelong learning and attracting hard-to-reach users.
Designed as a checklist or series of prompts for policy-makers and others involved in developing activities projects for young people, this booklet should help promote useful discussion and a more explicit consensus about the logic underlying programmes in this field.
This report covers the findings from the third year of the Healthy living centres evaluation, including how the programme has addressed health inequalities, created and enhanced community capacity, and developed links with health policy and the wider health economy.
The summary details the evaluation findings for the first 18 months of the programme covering the progress made by fast track projects. It also details the findings from baseline surveys received from activities projects in Scotland.
The evaluation encompasses both the People's Network and ICT training programme (elsewhere in this report the People's Network is commonly used to refer to both programmes). It has been designed to analyse the impact of the programme.
This summary is based on the second interim report of the cancer evaluation. It provides an overview of the main themes explored in the full report. It is intended for grantholders and other stakeholders of the Big Lottery Fund cancer programmes in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and for a wider audience of those with an interest in the delivery of cancer care and associated services.
This report was intended to inform the future development of the initiative and contains recommendations on methods and indicators for the main evaluation of the impact of initiative, to be carried out at a later date.
This summary covers the main findings from the second year of fieldwork. It looks at users of HLCs, how HLCs are addressing health inequalities and Black and minority ethnic issues, and experiences of case study HLCs.
This research reports examines the role that social enterprises can play in bridging the gap between provision and demand for childcare services. It outlines a number of areas that should be considered when starting or managing a childcare social enterprise and sets out some of the organisational models that have provided childcare.
This summary report sets out the findings and recommendations arising out of an evaluation of the application process that Charities experienced when making bids for funds from the Strategic Grants programme.
Last year, we reported on findings from the first year of the programme in England. In this year’s summary, we report on the second year of the programme in England and the first year of the programmes in Wales and Northern Ireland.
This literature review sets out the wider context for the “Community participation in service delivery” project, posing some questions that have underpinned later stages of that work.
In the summer of 2003, the New Opportunities Fund (the Fund) supported the first phase of Get REAL (Residential Exciting Active Leisure time), a pilot programme designed to structure the holiday time of young people aged 11 to 17.
This summary covers the main findings from initial year of fieldwork, and gives a flavour of how the HLC programme and its evaluation are developing, including some early experiences from projects.
This report summarises the findings from the childcare clubs visited across 24 areas in the UK. It includes findings from the telephone follow-up interviews with clubs visited in 2001 and 2002, and a survey of unsuccessful applicants for funding to investigate additionality.
In 2003, we investigated what had happened to the voluntary sector in Barnsley since the end of the earlier Brass for Barnsley initiative, and compared findings with more recent developments in Rotherham.
This report covers findings from interviews with specialist and non-specialist childcare clubs to understand the impact of the out of school hours childcare programme on children and young people, to explore the range of children and young people supported through the programme, and to inform the Fund’s thinking on disability issues.
This report is based on a random sample of 20 Community Fund grants from 1996 to 2001. The research was concerned with the effectiveness of the grants programme as a whole and contains a discussion of issues such as measuring the added value of infrastructure organisations and tailoring expectations.
The research in this report examined a random sample of 20 Community Fund grants selected from grants awarded under the grant programmes for voluntary sector infrastructure and development of volunterring. The projects in the sample covered the period 1996 to 2001.
This report describes the results of an assessment into the extent to which Community Fund grants to general use community buildings has led to a positive difference in the lives of local people.
We have always been willing to make comparatively large grants to small organisations. Some funders are reluctant to do this because of the risks involved. So we followed the experiences of some groups that had received large grants from us, to gain valuable information about their perceptions and reactions. This document summarises the main findings from each stage of the study, and discusses the main issues raised and how we intended to respond to them.
We have always been willing to make comparatively large grants to small organisations. Some funders are reluctant to do this because of the risks involved. So we followed the experiences of some groups that had received large grants from us, to gain valuable information about their perceptions and reactions. This document includes the full reports from each stage of the study.
This report summarises current thinking on the nature of social exclusion and deprivation, how these are measured, and the places where problems are concentrated.
A report looking at how social exclusion, and related terms such as disadvantage and deprivation, are used by the former New Opportunities Fund’s applicants, with the intention of informing future publications, in particular by highlighting areas of potential misunderstanding.
The organisations researched are usually responding to needs linked to national as much as to local context. Consequently, despite operating in diverse locations, organisations’ ethos and approach were often similar.
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