The CPAR (Community Participatory Action Research) programme provides community groups in the South East of England with training and mentoring support in order to plan, carry out and use research for the benefit of their community. CPAR resources should be useful for anyone interested in carrying out their own research.
Read MoreContribution analysis is a way to show the impact or progress of an activity or piece of work by focusing on how things that are more easy to measure ‘contribute’ to longer term, or higher-level outcomes.
Read MoreUnderstanding Scottish Places is an online tool that helps you to better understand and compare the places where you work and live. Just type the name of any town in Scotland into the search bar to get started.
Read MoreOpen Data Scotland acts as a central hub for finding open data from all around Scotland, including in your local area. From here you can find local data relating to everything from more important issues such as air quality management and community council boundaries to the more trivial such as baby first names.
Read MoreThe SIMD is a way of helping understand and find which areas in Scotland are ‘deprived’. It could be useful if you want to understand more about the profile of neighbourhoods in your area and where services could be targeted, or if you need to show data relating to poverty and inequality in your community, such as for a funding application.
Read MoreThe CHEX briefing puts the onus on statutory organisations and funders to unravel their old ways of working with and thinking about evidence so that they can make better use of evidence from communities and third sector and community organisations. It contains some mini case studies and could be useful for community groups thinking about how they evidence their own work.
Read MoreThrough the Ideas Fund, community groups can apply for Community Grants to work with researchers to explore issues important to them.
Read MoreCommunity Knowledge Matters is a network bringing together people interested in community-led research shaping practice & policy change in mental health and wellbeing in the Highlands & Islands and beyond.
Read MoreSupport is available to help voluntary and community organisations to collect and use statistical data, including from the Royal Statistical Society and the Scottish Government.
Read MoreKnowledge is Power is a programme to support community-led action research. It provides a toolkit with guides, methods and ideas to support community groups to carry out and use their own research.
Read MoreScotland’s National Outcomes are contained in the National Performance Framework. The Scottish Government's National Outcomes are a set of broad ambitions around making Scotland better for everyone who lives here. Some third sector organisations have used the National Performance Framework (NPF) in their work, and it could be useful for measuring your own progress, evidencing your imact and in funding applications.
Read MoreThis resource is for third sector organisations and those who fund or commission third sector organisations seeking to understand how the sector contributes to tackling health inequalities. It includes step by step guides, examples and templates for how to realistically show your contribution to outcomes at a societal level.
Read MoreEvaluation Support Scotland (ESS) works with voluntary organisations and funders so that they can measure and report on their impact.
Read MoreEvidence for Success is a series of guides which support you to engage with evidence in different ways to influence policy and practice and to improve your own work with your communities
Read MoreScottish Community Development Centre offers resources, guides, networks and a range of training and development support to community organisations and people working with communities across Scotland.
Read MoreThis Scottish Government website gives access to a range of official statistics about neighbourhoods in Scotland. You can find data on health, education, poverty, unemployment, housing, population, crime and social/community issues.
Read MoreResearch for Real is an Edinburgh-based consultancy promoting learning by providing facilitation, advice and support using participatory, appreciative and action research approaches.
Read MoreBased on the experience of collaborative research in Wester Hailes, Edinburgh, this guide aims to help community partners and academics maximise the benefits of research that is coproduced between communities and academic researchers based in a university.
Read MoreStory dialogue is a research method that generates insights from people’s experiences and reflections. This briefing from Community Health Exchange (CHEX) introduces story dialogue as way to do research with your community and share lessons across public and community/voluntary sectors. It’s a bit dense at times but takes you through the whole process step-by-step.
Read MoreARC is a clearly written, practical, guide for community and voluntary groups carrying out research in and with their communities.
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