WHALE Arts Outnav Report

This report was generated by OutNav using the theory-based approach to evaluation pioneered by Matter of Focus.

Introduction This report contains a condensed version of our Outnav generated report. It highlights the reasons behind our choice to use Outnav and focuses on selected stepping stones within our Health Wellbeing and Happiness pathway.

We are at the very beginning of our journey in using Outnav and we hope that it will help us streamline our evaluation process across the whole spectrum of groups, projects, activities and events that we deliver at WHALE Arts.

Early findings show that we are doing really well in some areas where as in others we need to find more robust ways of collecting and evaluating our data.

The end goal is to become even better at what we do for the benefit of the individuals and the community we serve.

Background About this work This Outcome Map has been developed by WHALE Arts and captures the key ways in which we as an organisation work to make change.

Aims & Objectives At WHALE Arts we know exactly what we want to do and we are clear on what we are trying to achieve. The overall aim of this project is to use the Outnav methodology and software to find out if we are actually doing the things we think and say we are doing and, to find ways of measuring how well we are doing these things so, in turn, we can learn how to do them better.

We have taken a highly strategic and an organisation-wide view when developing this outcome map which has been based around the aims and objectives set out in our 5-year strategic plan.

There are 6 core themes in our plan which encompass everything that we are trying to do at WHALE- they are Health, Wellbeing & Happiness, Economy, Enterprise, Learning & Skills, Places & Spaces, Development & Improvement; Data, Evaluation & Innovation, Communication, Conversation & Co-production.

Phase one is to develop our first pathway - Health Wellbeing and Happiness. This report is based around the progress we have made so far with this pathway. The long game is to develop 6 pathways, one relating to each of the themes in our strategic plan, enabling us to measure our effectiveness across the range of activities and partnerships we engage in.

Context WHALE Arts is a community-led arts charity and social enterprise that was set up by local people in Wester Hailes, in 1992. Our building, the WHALE Arts Centre is a unique community asset that provides a range of high-quality creative spaces including an arts workshop, performance space and digital media facilities. From these, we deliver a wide range of creative activities, groups, projects and events with and for our community.

At WHALE Arts we work in-depth across Wester Hailes and more generally across the wider South West of Edinburgh. We work alongside local people using an assets-based or strength-based approach, building on strengths rather than on deficits or weaknesses.

Wester Hailes, which has a population of about 11,500, is split into 7 distinct neighbourhoods - Westburn, The Calders, Clovenstone, Murrayburn, Hailesland, Dumbryden and Harvesters. It has a complex and fascinating history with a level of community involvement that was once regarded as one of the most sophisticated in the UK. Unsurprisingly there are high levels of pride among local people but despite this, many residents still face challenges relating to health, employment, crime and housing and poverty.

We work collaboratively at local, city-wide and national levels with NHS and City of Edinburgh Council Health and Social Care providers, with the jobcentre, local schools, the police, our local housing association various third sector organisations and local businesses; we work in partnerships with a range of national creative and cultural organisations across a range of art forms including visual arts, craft, music, poetry, creative writing, theatre for children, young people and their families.

Methodology The work shown in this report has been carried out using the Matter of Focus approach. The Matter of Focus approach is a theory-based approach to outcome monitoring and evaluation, learning and improvement that builds on contribution analysis. In using the approach, we have gone through a logical and structured process of: Developing a theory of change for our project informed by an understanding of the context in which we operate.

Agreeing one or more outcome maps that show how we think our activities contribute to outcomes, and what needs to be in place to make this happen.

Identifying clear change mechanisms by which our project or programme works, these are shown in our pathways.

Developing a plan to gather data to understand whether or not we are making the progress towards outcomes we hope.

This includes integrating current data and information we collect, as well as capturing data specifically for this purpose.

Systematically reviewing this data against each of the stepping stones for each pathway in the outcome map.

Summarising key findings against each of the stepping stones to tell our contribution story.

Our Outcome Map Our Outcome Map helps us identify and evidence exactly how we improve outcomes for our people and our community. The 6 distinct sections enable us to first clarify and then evidence exactly what we do, who we do it with, how they feel, what they learn and gain, what they do differently and finally what difference this makes.

Each section is further divided into stepping stones, which allows us to clearly identify and separate out all of the different things we do, such as co-produce programmes that improve health wellbeing and happiness or We sustain open communication at local, national & international levels and use our voice to influence policy & strategy.

Once identified, we can then dig much deeper into each stepping stone and to evidence how the complex and relational interventions that we do, makes a difference for the people and community we serve.

Our First Pathway Our First pathway relates to the Health Well-being and Happiness strand in our strategic plan and is based on our Arts and Wellbeing programme. We will be expanding this to include all the work we do with children, young people and families as much of this work also comes under Health Well-being and Happiness.

Our Outcome Map

Health Well-being & Happiness Pathway

Selected

Stepping Stones in Detail Health, Well-being and Happiness Pathway In this condensed report we have selected 6 stepping stones from the total 16 on our Health, Well-being and Happiness pathway. For each selected stepping stone we have gone in to detail about what we are trying to measure, how we are or how we propose to do this and how well we think we are doing at this point in the process.

We have chosen to highlight one stepping stone from each of the 6 sections - What we do, Who with, How they feel, What they learn and gain, What they do differently and What difference does this make.

For full details of all the stepping stones in out Outnav project please see our detailed Outnav report.

What we do?

We co-produce & deliver creative programmes that improve health well being and happiness.

The two main aspects of what we do include co-production - that our groups/creative programmes are co-produced with participants; and, that engagement in or with those groups/creative programmes facilitates improved wellbeing and happiness.

To effectively measure our ability to co-produce, first, we have to define coproduction?Co-production is not a new concept, however, there has been increased interest in the approach since the mid-2000s, particularly within the public and voluntary sectors in the United Kingdom.

For WHALE Arts, a grassroots organisation which was set up by local people for local people, co-production has always been central to what we do. As we define it co-production is about shifting the traditional balance of power between professionals and those that use our services – our people. It is acknowledging the sometimes unacknowledged knowledge, assets, efforts and skills of our people and recognising that their knowledge, assets, efforts and skills are just as valid as those of the professionals.

Co-production means listening to our people and acting on what we have heard. It means sharing power and responsibility, building relationships of trust and doing what matters for all people involved.

So how do we co-produce our programmes?

It is fair to say that the levels of coproduction vary between the different groups and programmes that we deliver and it is also important to note that we've only just begun to measure the levels at which our programmes are co-produced but the key as we see it, is talking to our people, asking what they want and valuing their choices.

On the simplest level, we involve people in choosing what type of food they would like served at our community meal, or consult them about changes within the building such as our newly revamped toilets.

Within the groups, there are varying levels of co-production including group members forming the interview panel to select their new group facilitator or community memebrs proposing an idea for a group which we then establish

Improved wellbeing and happiness The second aspect of what we do includes improving wellbeing and happiness through engagement in our creative groups, programmes and activities.

While it is clear that wellbeing and happiness are inextricably linked and happiness is often included in definitions of wellbeing, we feel that they are slightly different things and worth measuring separately. Happiness, as defined by the dictionary, is “the quality or state of being happy,” a state of being which could last for a few minutes or a much longer time. Wellbeing, by dictionary definition, is "a good or satisfactory condition of existence;” something that pervades over the longer term and which, as we see it, includes how satisfied we are with our lives, our sense of purpose/feeling that what we do is worthwhile, our emotional experiences (including happiness and anxiety) and our wider mental wellbeing.

We like the definition cited in the Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project's final report (2008) as it also includes aspect relating to positive relationships, creativity and community which in our experience are central to good wellbeing.

Wellbeing - a ‘dynamic state, in which the individual is able to develop their potential, work productively and creatively, build strong and positive relationships with others, and contribute to their community'.

So why are we measuring both? Many of the group in our arts and wellbeing programme and been specifically designed to improve well-being and we use a range of measures to find out whether engaging with these groups over the longerterm results in improved wellbeing.

We feel that peoples happiness, while they are at WHALE, is just as important as improving wellbeing in the long term - as one will hopefully contribute to the other.

We are currently exploring how best to measure happiness and what we can do to make people feel happier while they are with us.

Who with?

Local people in our community We work predominately with local people in our community. We define living locally as anyone living within the postcodes EH14, EH11 and EH12. Of the 678 people who attended our regular groups last year, (2019), 92% came from our local community so we know that we are doing this well.

Our local community is hugely diverse and our people have wide-ranging interests, needs and abilities. We aim to make all our groups, programmes and activities as inclusive as possible however we tailor some of our groups towards specific demographics in order to meet identified needs within our community. Some examples include people with complex needs, people struggling with mental illhealth and people with long term conditions.

Detailed definitions clarifying our understanding of complex needs, mental ill-health and long-term conditions and the reasons for our choice of terms can be found in our full Outnav report.

Of participants attending core groups within our adult Arts and Wellbeing programme 31% report having complex needs, 65% report having a long term condition and 55% report they struggle with mental ill-health.

As we have only recently begun to measure the prevalence of mental ill-health, longterm conditions and complex needs across the spectrum of people who engage with us at WHALE, we believe these figures just scratch the surface. Previously these details would be collected only if someone registered for a group specifically tailored for this demographic. We are now in the process of updating our registration forms so we can collect this data at an early stage in an individuals journey with WHALE Arts.

Lillian Shipton Let's Create Facilitator Lillian is a ceramicist, visual artist and art psychotherapist in training. Her work takes inspiration from her time spent in Berlin and Mexico City where she developed her funky and innovative approach to ceramic design. She aims to push conventional and material boundaries, creating unique and interesting forms. She believes in the therapeutic properties of the arts and art-making using her art practice to connect both with her clinical work and as a personal therapeutic outlet.

Rachael Hunter Smartcraft Facilitator Rachael Hunter is a multi-disciplined visual artist, with a background in animation and film making. She has worked in community art and youth work for over 5 years and has been the SmARTcraft lead artist since January 2018.

Debbie Wright Stitch n' Time Facilitator Debbie’s passion for stitching is part of a tradition that has run through generations of her family. She has built a successful business, making curtains and soft furnishings over the last 25 years. Debbie‘s enthusiasm for stitching-based crafts and encouraging others to share her enjoyment in learning and exploring the creative possibilities of this pastime eventually brought her to Whale Arts. Here she has worked to support groups of women in developing their own skills and confidence in devising stitching projects, both as individuals and working together.

Artists, makers, designers, creative professionals

Our mission at WHALE Arts is to create the conditions for our community in Wester Hailes to work alongside artists and cultural practitioners to become agents for change who will proactively co-design, participate in, support or lead high-quality creative activity at all stages of their lives.

We create diverse and dynamic creative programmes which have expressive, restorative, therapeutic and educational purposes, and which are also preventative, enhance recovery and improve the quality of life for people with long term conditions. In addition, we create opportunities for people to come together with artists to make art together and have happy, joyful, magical creative experiences.

To do this we rely on a team of highly talented artists, designers, makers and creative professionals who deliver/facilitate our groups, activities, events and projects.

Of the 6 regular groups in our Arts and Wellbeing programme for adults, 4 are currently led by professional artists - the other two being self-led by community members.

Currently, we have 8 regular groups in our programme for children and young people and of them, 7 are run by professional artists and the other is being delivered by our Digital Communities Lead.

We also have a bank of freelance artists and creative practitioners who deliver sessional programmes, special events and other creative activities and projects.

How they feel?

Welcome

It is really important to us that everyone who comes to WHALE Arts is made to feel welcome. Whether you are coming to participate in a group, coming to a meeting, to attend an interview, the community meal, to volunteer, to work or to collect someone else who is attending a group. We want you to feel welcome from the minute you walk in the door and for as long as you are engaging with us at WHALE. That we want everyone to feel welcome is not new, what is new is that we are starting to collect data, to find out whether our people really do feel welcome and to ask questions about what we can do to make people feel more welcome.

People do tell us how they feel when they come to WHALE and we get some amazing comments and quotes from our people both in-person and on social media. We are starting to look at how we can get better at collecting, storing and evaluating this valuable feedback.

We now have a central folder on our server where we are saving the various quotes and comments we get and are encouraging our staff, including the freelance artists who deliver most of our groups to note down any special comments (with permission from the people that say them) as and when they arise during sessions.

We have also started using our A-frame chalkboards as a way of gathering feedback from our people. The latest question we have posed is "How welcome do you feel at WHALE?" and we have asked people to use smiley, straight or sad-faced stickers as an indicator of how welcome they feel.

On the other side of the board, we have asked people to comment and give their suggestions on what we can do to make people feel more welcome. The regular groups at WHALE have only started back this week but already we are seeing encouraging results.Â

"Coming back after the New Year and seeing this Exhibition - Voices of Edinburgh - this is the first time I've seen something like this here. It really helps, seeing pictures that you can instantly identify with, without anyone saying anything about it. That really helps to make you feel welcome."

Nabirye Balyejusa CEO SCOREscotland "I don't have to apologise, I don't have to explain, we are accepted just the way we are, good days and bad days, amazing."

Creative Adventures participant

"It's like a wee family. Everyone has their things wrong with them and here everyone relates to things like that, that's what the group's, for - its a place you feel comfy."

Let's Create group member

What they learn & gain? access to opportunities social & economic We do our absolute best to provide opportunities for our people, whether they be opportunities to engage socially, opportunities to improve their economic prospects either through direct employment, skills development courses or volunteering opportunities.

We host a weekly community meal at WHALE Arts which is open to anyone at all who wants to come and share good health food and a great community atmosphere. We regularly feed in excess of 50 people.

For many, this may be their first experience at WHALE and often this is the point where they start to find out about the other things that go on here and many come to join in other groups, activities or events. For others, perhaps already attending a group, coming to the meal is an opportunity to meet new people, take steps towards overcoming social anxiety and enjoy some good healthy food.

Until now we have never paid great attention to the number of people attending our community meals nor how many are regular attendees and how many are coming for the first time. Next week we have a new community meal chef and outreach worker starting in post and port of this role is to look who is coming to the meals and how we can attract more community members to come along.

The numerous trips and events that we put on throughout the year are also fantastic social opportunities. In the year 2018- 2019 We hosted 82-holiday activities and one-off events at WHALE and a further 32 one-off events at other locations throughout Wester Hailes.

FABIEN PAUL GARDEN

TOOL LIBRARY

VOLUNTEERING

MEN'S MAKERS

SCO - MUSIC

AT WHALE

DIGITAL DROP-IN

PAID WORK

LOUISE

PAID WORK

AT WHALE

SMARTIES

STREET ARTS

INDIAN DANCE

HOLIDAY EVENT

AT WHALE STREET ARTS PAID WORK

VOLUNTEERING

SAM TASTING CHANGE

LET'S CREATE

STITCH N' TIME

VOLUNTEERING

PAID WORK

AT THE HEALTH AGENCY

We provide a number of volunteering opportunities both in our community garden and in front of house positions but what we are really interested in, is the transitions that some of our people make from participants to volunteers and vice-versa.

Last year we had two of our people move from participant to volunteer to a paid employee at WHALE. Another, who's confidence grew rapidly through engaging in various projects at WHALE has now been employed at the Health Agency and this year we have just employed another participant who will start as our new community meal chef next week.

Perhaps our biggest success story is from one of our Mums into Business members. Mum of 6 Illi Rawali has seen her small business making handmade earrings and cushions from her own printed fabrics take off.

In the run-up to Christmas, her first batch of earrings made from traditional Fijian barkcloth sold out in 48 hours and her page received more than 1000 likes in the same time frame

https://www.facebook.com/boutiquefiji/

What they do differently?

Engage in professional development opportunities at WHALE At WHALE Arts we pride ourselves on our ability to provide professional development opportunities for our people, whether they are participants, volunteers or freelance artists.

We take a highly creative approach to this and are constantly seeking innovative ways to offer development opportunities.

Exhibitions - We are fortunate to have a fantastic exhibition space along the main corridor at WHALE. It is like the main artery of our building through which everyone must flow to get to and from the various group spaces, offices and kitchen - any visitors can not fail to notice the spectacular artworks on display.

In 2019 we had two very special exhibitions. The first was a solo exhibition by Rose Xu, she has been a participant in both Room for Art and Let's Create after being referred to WHALE Arts by her doctor two years ago.

After her highly successful solo exhibition at WHALE, Rose decided to apply for the RSA (Royal Scottish Academy) Open Art Exhibition and with support from the team at WHALE she submitted two pieces. Sadly her work was not selected but she was not deterred.

The second special exhibition in 2019 was the very first Wester Hailes Open Art Exhibition, hosted by WHALE Arts. Anyone from Wester Hailes - including staff, freelancers, participants and community members were invited to submit a piece of work to be included in the exhibition.

Rose Xu Wester Hailes Open Art Exhibition

The exhibition was a resounding success and a real step forward in our efforts at co-production With works by participants, community members and staff all displayed together, the traditional balance of power between professionals and those that use our services was shifted and the assets, efforts and skills of our people were shown to be just as valid as those of the professionals.

Last year saw staff and participants go on a number of cultural trips including a barge trip from Wester Hailes to see various exhibitions during the Edinburgh Festival; a trip to the Palm House and the Johnston Terrace Wildlife Garden and a visit to Glasgow Sculpture Workshops and the Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre.

WHALE Arts was one of the winners in the 2019 SURF Awards for best practice in community regeneration winning the Creative Regeneration category. CEO Leah Black, our Operations and Communications Coordinator Laura Delahunt and our newest member of staff Fabien Merville who has been both a participant, volunteer and now a paid member of staff, attended the awards ceremony.

And, at the end of January this year (2020) a group of staff, freelance artists, volunteers, members of Mums into Business and the Men's Makers group are going on a research trip to the Granby Ceramics Workshop and Market in Liverpool.

Funded by Creative Scotland the aim of the trip is to find out as much as possible about how their community orientated ceramics business and market were developed, how they run both sustainably and profitably and to get ideas about how we can develop our own disused darkroom here at WHALE in to an economically viable creative community workshop.

What difference does it make?

Our people have improved wellbeing & are more resilient Improved overall well-being is one of the key outcomes for all of the groups in our arts and well-being programme. Two of our groups, Let's Create and Men's Makers have been specifically set up to facilitate improved mental health and wellbeing which to us means reducing reported levels of anxiety, depression and social isolation. Increasing self-confidence and self-esteem. Increasing social connectedness, positive relationships and sense of purpose within the community.

We use three well-being measures to capture quantitative data on different aspects of wellbeing including the Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS), the Office for National Statistics (ONS) subjective well-being questions and the Social trust question. To complement this we also do session evaluations, visual reflection feedback sessions and reflective focus group sessions.

So far we have seen some impressive results and have had excellent feedback from group members. We have published a number of case studies and reports which go into detail about the impact on individuals mental health and wellbeing.

For us, by far the greatest measure of success is what our people say.

"I was borderline agoraphobic but since coming to the groups and cooking I got over the agoraphobia. Now I'm on top of my eating disorder too. I'm in control of it, it doesn't control me."

Let's Create group member

"It's been very helpful for me I would say so for my health and wellbeing. I've kind of been going about as though I'm not in the world and I need to have things to do and that (Room for Art) was very helpful and I have enjoyed it."

Room for Art participant

"It's brought me out my shell and into reality.

Before I use to go to bed feeling thank God that day is over, I just existed, I don't feel like that now."

Let's Create group member

"Quality of life is improved, greatly, because we have these problems at home and we have a certain confidence in each other that we can communicate them with each other and that kind of trust or something like that and these things are swimming about your head and we can give voice to them, then we can diminish them a bit, then we go back home again and continue from where we left off.""

Let's Create group member

Let's Create 6-week Snapshot - Dec 2019 https://issuu.com/whalearts/docs/lc_6_week_report Stitch N' Time Project Report - Dec 2019 https://issuu.com/whalearts/docs/stitch_n_time_3_month_report Men's Makers 3-month Snapshot - Dec 2019 https://issuu.com/whalearts/docs/men_s_makers_3_month_report Let's Create Case Study - May 2019 https://issuu.com/whalearts/docs/let_s_create_case_study__1_ Journeys with Tasting Change, Sam's Story - May 2019 https://issuu.com/whalearts/docs/_sam_s_story__2_ Journeys with Tasting Change, Jackies Story - May 2019 https://issuu.com/whalearts/docs/journeys_with_tasting_change_-_jack Smartcraft evaluation report - April 2019 https://issuu.com/whalearts/docs/smartcraft_evaluation_report_2018_