Resources
Archer Project on the Web
- Archer Project Website - The home of the Archer Project on the internet
- JustGiving - Donate to the Archer Project
- Sheffield Cathedral
- Twitter - The Archer Project’s microblog
Useful Resources
Evaluation Report 2009
Safety, Support and Friends:
An evaluation of the Cathedral Archer Project
Conclusions and recommendations
1. Analysis of a range of outputs suggests CAP is successful in achieving recognised outcomes for the sector. However the level of structured monitoring information is low and needs to be improved to enable the project to demonstrate success in moving clients on to stable life patterns. The organisation is aware of this and is attempting to address the issue through the development of the existing database and investigation of ways to implement and use recognised tools e.g. the outcomes star. Lack of resource within the project is delaying progress on both these issues.
Recommendation – develop an action and resource plan to address monitoring and management information needs. Further funding will need to be found to implement the plan.
2. The long term impact of the Cathedral Archer Project can only be fully assessed if client progression information can be obtained once they ‘move on’ from or leave the project. Sustained information is required to ensure desired outcomes are being achieved over time. This would require partnership working throughout homeless service providers in Sheffield and the region.
Recommendation – develop methods of retaining contact with clients and standard methods of monitoring progress once clients leave the project. Resource will be required to develop, implement and maintain these systems.
Recommendation – CAP to investigate ways of working with umbrella organisations e.g. Homeless Link to drive greater partnership working in the region. This will require a specific skill set which will need to be resourced and funded.
3. The move to purpose built city centre premises in March 2007 increased the usage of the project to an average of 98 clients per day in 2008. The project staff believed the numbers being served was leading to a dilution of resource and impacting on the service level to those in dire need. A new criteria list has recently been implemented in an attempt to address this issue. Whilst this will lead to a reduction in numbers to around 70 per day, the service levels to those in dire need will improve leading to increased probability of achieving ‘move on’.
Recommendation – develop systems to monitor the impact of the criteria change.
4. The ongoing development of outcome monitoring in CAP has already resulted in a shift in the culture of the organisation with Project Workers understanding the need to evidence achievement of outcomes. However, further training and development of staff is required to complete this culture shift and fully realise the benefits of these developments.
Recommendation – a training programme should be developed for Project Workers to increase knowledge and understanding of the wider national and local agendas and how CAP contributes to these outcomes e.g. Places of Change agenda promoted by the Office of Communities and Local Government. This should include training in the practical use of a range of tools including the outcomes
star.
5. The impact of all the programmes would be improved with development and resourcing of necessary infrastructure and administration requirements. The project would benefit from increased administration support, an extra project worker, increased office space and improved access to office equipment.
Recommendation – develop a resource and infrastructure needs plan and the funding requirements to implement the plan.
6. Whilst the project can demonstrate improvements in literacy and numeracy through the results of mock tests clients are not able to provide evidence of improvements because of the difficulties involved in motivating clients to attend an external testing centre. This situation would be improved by registering and operating CAP as a testing centre.
Recommendation – register and operate the Cathedral Archer Project as an external testing centre. Funding would be required to provide the resource to implement this plan.
7. CAP has demonstrated success in motivating clients to attend external activities with the benefits they provide in terms of increasing confidence and self esteem and reducing the time available for drug and substance misuse. More activities could be provided if the project was able to fund transport costs. Ideally the project would have access to a dedicated minibus.
Recommendation – investigate corporate sponsorship possibilities of buying and running a minibus.
8. Some success has been achieved in attracting clients to a third Keep It Safe programme. Further trials of this are needed to assess its success in achieving ‘move on’ for clients.
Recommendation – funding should be sought to enable further monitored trials of this programme.
9. Approximately 1.5% of current CAP clients are from the ‘Accession Eight’ (A8) nations which joined the EU in May 2004 (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia). This is a growing trend which should be monitored and CAP may need to develop appropriate services and resources to deal effectively with this group of clients.
Recommendation – long term planning to deal with the probable rise in clients from the A8 nations is required. This is likely to lead to an increased cost per client if services such as interpreters are required.
10. Whilst at the project several clients have written evocative poems about life on the streets or produced excellent artwork. The publication of poems and the display of art in public places often lead to increased confidence and self esteem.
Recommendation – Approach “text in the city”, a Sheffield initiative to mount poems on the outside of public buildings to investigate the possibilities of using a client poem.
Recommendation – approach corporate and funding partners to investigate the possibilities of displaying poetry or art in prominent places.