Evaluation Sandbox

Monthly, drop-in, evaluation group mentoring and peer support

First Wednesday of the month; 2pm - 3.30pm (excluding August)

7th June - 5th July - 6th September

“Really useful to have a room full of creative people to share ideas and brainstorm about the pros and cons of evaluation methods.”

Past participant, Creative Evaluation training

Would you like to feel inspired, encouraged and supported to evaluate well?

  • Would you like to become part of a wider community of practice striving to explore, understand, evidence and advocate for their creative work?

  • Are you excited by creative evaluation methods that enable you to deliver appropriate, accessible, enjoyable and meaningful evaluations that fit the creative nature of your work?

  • Would you find it helpful to bounce questions and explore challenges with me and a like-minded group of supportive peers?

This is a space for us all to share, learn and grow together.

I will host and facilitate the group, but I don’t promise to have all the answers! By pooling our skills, experience, and ideas, we will support each other to get the most out of evaluation.

Come along to:

  • Share and celebrate your ideas, solutions, and successes

  • Bring your questions, challenges, and frustrations

  • Share and work through problems and barriers with others

“Jane is enthusiastic, passionate, dynamic, friendly, inclusive, thorough, informed, generous. An excellent communicator both orally, and visually.”

Past participant, Enhancing Healthcare Environments training

Is this right for me?

  • This is a space for anyone responsible for planning and delivering evaluation.

  • It is ideally suited to those with some experience of evaluation, including all those who have completed a Creative and Credible Evaluation Training Programme with me.

  • It is open to creative practitioners, learning and engagement professionals, programme managers, and research and evaluation leads.

  • The diversity of skill, experience and perspective in the group will make for rich discussion and problem solving if you are curious, open and willing to share your own experience as well as learn from others.

This is probably not right for you if:

  • You are completely new to evaluation and want to know how to get started

  • You want someone to show you what to do, step by step

  • You are not willing to engage and share in collaborative problem solving

  • You are an experienced academic grappling with complex and / or quantitative research

“Jane is so approachable and accessible. Engaging from start to finish. It was wonderful!”

Past participant, Enhancing Healthcare Environments training

How does it work?

Each month, we will gather to explore whatever pressing issues, questions, or challenges you bring to the session.

 Starting with brief introductions, we will review the range of things people want to explore in the group, choosing 2-3 topics for discussion each month.

 You might come with a knotty problem, a quick question, or a success you want to share and celebrate.

 Alternatively, you may have nothing pressing to discuss, but choose to come along to be inspired and learn from discussion with others.

 I will facilitate the sessions, providing coaching and mentoring where appropriate, but mainly holding space for us all to share and explore together.

 

Details and Cost

  • These sessions will run on the first Wednesday of every month (excluding August) for 1.5 hours, 2 - 3.30pm.

  • They will be held live on Zoom. 

  • The dates for 2023 are:

    Wednesday 7th June - Wednesday 5th July - Wednesday 6th September

  • You can attend one or as many of the sessions as you choose.

  • Numbers are limited to ensure space for discussion and sharing.

  • The cost is £15 per session.

To book a place, you can choose to pay credit card, or by invoice.

 

About Your Trainer

I am a creative health consultant, writer, trainer and mentor.  

I support people to reflect, evaluate and learn through evaluation and creative practice training, reflective writing workshops, coaching, mentoring and consultancy.

I want people to feel connected, supported, and resourced to practise well.  My desire to support others stems from 30 years’ experience in the creative sector and an understanding of both the joys and challenges of this work.

I started working in healthcare in 1993 as Director of Arts for Barts Health, where I set up the Trust’s arts programme, Vital Arts. After seven years at its helm, I moved to Bristol where I founded award-winning arts and health consultancy Willis Newson.

As Director of Willis Newson, my team and I worked with more than 32 NHS Trusts, health boards and charities to transform environments of care and drive culture change, establishing creative programmes that support staff, patients and wider communities.

Driven by curiosity around the value and impact of this work, I initiated two Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) academic knowledge exchange partnerships with the University of the West of England to explore how best to evaluate creative health programmes. Working as co-lead with Professor Norma Daykin, we produced Creative and Credible, an online resource supporting better arts and health evaluation which continues to inform much of my current training.

Alongside this, I have been actively involved in the development of the wider creative health sector through training and research, as co-founder and former Chair of Arts and Health South West, a member of the Culture Health and Wellbeing International Conference organising committee, and as a Non-Executive Director of health animation company Formed Films.

A desire to reconnect with my own creativity led me to complete a master’s degree in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes in 2020. Creative, reflective and therapeutic writing practices inform everything I now do. They underpin my approach to evaluation, inform and shape the way I teach, and support my coaching and mentoring practice.

 
 

  • These workshops will take place on Zoom. A link to take part will be sent to you in advance of each workshop starting.

  • You will need access to a computer or laptop with an internet connection, camera and microphone. Headphones can be helpful to ensure clarity and privacy, but are not essential. A wired ethernet connection will work better than WiFi.

  • Not at all. You can attend as many or as few sessions as you would like.

  • I offer a full refund if you cancel at least 10 working days before the session date.

    I offer a credit note - which can be used towards a future session or another course - if you cancel with less than 10 working days notice.

    No refund or credit note will be offered if you cancel with less than 24 hours notice.

    If I cancel a session for any reason, I will refund any fees you have paid in their entirety.

  • By booking, you agree that we may collect and store personal information about you and your interactions with us for the purposes of running this programme. This includes: your personal contact details; gender; details of your booking and booking history, including any access needs you have told us about; records of payments (not including credit/debit cards numbers, etc.); any correspondence and any other information we need to keep in order to administer your booking. All personal information is kept securely. We will use this information to communicate with you about your booking and we may, unless you tell us otherwise, communicate with you occasionally about our work and other courses and support that we offer. We never share or sell information about our course participants with any third party, either in aggregate or in individual form.

“I was bowled over by Jane’s breadth and depth of knowledge and experience and the exactness of the response to questions.”

Past participant, Introduction to Evaluation