Yorkshire Sport Foundation

Data and learning gathered over a six-year period not only changed the way in which YSF used its resource, but the research always influenced national practice amongst other Active Partnerships and national sporting bodies.

About the work

We started working with Yorkshire Sport Foundation due to a Place Based pilot that Comic Relief and Sport England were delivering in two communities: Burngreave in Sheffield and Lakenham in Norwich. The pilot was a huge success in Burngreave. More funding was secured to continue the work and more communities were identified by Yorkshire Sport Foundation to explore different models of place based working. Sport England wanted to continue collecting and supporting the learning and funded further evaluation work.

What we did

Shephard & Moyes were appointed as the evaluation partner for Yorkshire Sport Foundation in this work. We worked with each community to understand the outcomes they were hoping to achieve and how we could best understand what had happened. We also provided training to the team on monitoring and evaluation.

The difference we made

The learning from the place based work helped inform how Yorkshire Sport Foundation are approaching their work in this area. We are part of a small advisory group that is helping think through strength based ways of working in Yorkshire. We are also continuing to support evaluation work they undertake. This has included an evaluation of Navigating Local Systems work, Levelling the Playing Field and developing a toolkit for using Rounders as an engagement tool.