Well, that was a busy start to a New Year…and that’s not a complaint!

Groundwork Wales have awarded us an additional contract to evaluate their Go Green 4 Health project. In some ways, this is very different to their Sustainable Play project, nonetheless their hallmark approach to getting people active in the outdoors comes through loudly and clearly on both projects. From an evaluator’s perspective, these projects are interesting as they involve data collection from people while they are engaged in all kinds of different activities rather than simple interviews over a cup of tea.

In some senses, another of our recently won evaluation projects is very different; the People’s Cathedral is a Heritage Lottery Fundsupported project at Guildford Cathedral. While a capital project at one level, the story of the people who built the cathedral and continue to support it today is fascinating. Oral history, schools work, community engagement, artists in residence, concerts and interpretation work are just some of the facets of this project. It is amazing to think that over 200,000 people donated money to buy a brick to realise Sir Edward Maufe’s vision of a modern cathedral…it’s worth a visit if you are ever in the area.

If these projects are not interesting enough, we’ve also won some work in Kazakhstan to help build capacity in 7 universities.  We’ve always enjoyed working internationally when that has been possible, so we are pleased to be working with British Council to help make this possible now.