This month the Museum of East Anglian Life publishes its first Social Return On Investment (SROI) analysis. It shows how MEAL’s training programme for long term unemployed people gives them a real chance of getting a job, as well as helping them make new friends and develop hope for the future. Not only that, the programme provides a boost to families and the community by linking with services that work with some of the most disadvantaged folk in Stowmarket. SROI is a young approach that combines a story of change with financial proxies for a numeric result. The analysis was completed over the last year by MB Associates supported by the New Economics Foundation. The report is available at http://www.eastanglianlife.org.uk/meal-in-the-community/meals-social-return-on-investment-study-2011/ and the team is happy to discuss the project with other organisations that want to use the approach.
Silvia Anton, headof research at the MLA (museums libraries and archives body) says “the MLA’s been looking at SROI for a while. It’s not an easy option for museums, but it’s certainly a rigorous and credible approach”. MEAL’s director, Tony Butler backs that up; “SROI is a complex and revealing methodology which avoids the imprecision of qualitative and blandness of quantitative evaluation”. But he feels it was worth the hard work. The report has helped MEAL to secure further funding from the Neighbourhood Learning for Deprived Communities fund, even in these challenging times. It also identified the most productive priorities for the programme, and for the new Skills for the Future programme which MEAL is delivering with Norfolk Museums. It recommends that the museum really focuses on working with partners to help participants move on, and that it works more explicitly with families. And it recognises how important the museum itself is to trainees, the land, the collections, the animals, the crafts and the sense of belonging and place.
Mark’s story shows the programme at its best. Mark is 32. Three years ago he was sleeping rough and MEAL put him in contact with a housing charity which gave him accommodation and support. He then enrolled with a GP and started treatment for depression. MEAL invited Mark onto the programme, which he completed with 5 accredited qualifications. A year on Mark is responsible for maintaining specific areas of the site as a volunteer and he’s back in touch with his family. He is passionate about MEAL and is valued highly by the team too. Mark plans to move on to a job and hopes first to gain an apprenticeship through the new Skills for the Future programme.
The team used pictures and collage to talk directly to trainees, families and partners about the difference the course made to them. The pictures represented some of the researched outcomes already identified for museums through the Generic Learning Outcomes. Using research into the psychology of learning they created ‘ladders of progression’ for participants so they could show trainees’ progress. They then equated these outcomes (or ‘part’ outcomes) to either real or proxy financial returns.
SROI has a strongly defined set of principles, including caution about over-claiming. So before MEAL could claim a return on investment, the analyst took off what MEAL can’t take credit for; what others have contributed, or where changes might have happened anyway. The final ratio for the work-based learning programme showed that for every £1 invested in the programme, MEAL created over £4 of social value.
As a social enterprise, MEAL tries to push the boundaries of what museums typically do. Tony Butler of MEAL and Mandy Barnett of MB Associates are happy to talk to others about the pros and cons of using this approach. Contact them on tony.butler@eastanglianlife.org.uk or Mandy@MBAssociates.org.
Note to editors:
The Museum of East Anglian Life is the largest independent museum in the East of England situated in Stowmarket, Suffolk. It has collections of historic buildings and objects which tell the story of East Anglian lives and culture since 1800. Its training and skills development programme for vulnerable adults has won awards, namely Entrepreneurial Museum of the Year in 2010.