Scottish Government

DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY CULTURAL PATHFINDER PROJECT EVALUATION PLAN

Dumfries & Galloway Cultural Pathfinder will deliver a variety of artist/facilitator led practical cultural projects in partnership with three selected communities.

Overall aim: As a result of this interaction the project will determine what the people of a rural region like Dumfries & Galloway expect from their cultural entitlements with desired outcomes such as increased confidence, social networks and greater likelihood of participation by individuals and increased capacity and confidence in communities/groups to deliver cultural activities.

Specific aims:

• Develop a broader awareness of cultural provision already available
• Improve understanding of how people learn about cultural opportunities
• Stimulate increased activity through cultural planning
• Identify and seek to address barriers to participation
• Identify and seek to address any perceived gaps in provision
• Develop improved communication conduits

Resources:

• Project budget of £119,000 (£65,000 Pathfinder, £32,000 DGC in kind + (3 Area Committees x £6k), £10,000 DGC in kind, £22,000 DGAA in kind

· A project steering group

· 3 + Artist facilitators

· 3 communities and their local organisations

Activities/services:

· Develop a project plan and use to provide feedback to steering group and community partners

· Devise a toolkit of consultation approaches

· Establish baseline of current cultural provision

· Meet a broad range of community organisations, service providers, agencies and Council departments

· Select participating communities and recruit community organisations that wish to pursue new cultural projects

· Develop projects with a facilitator/lead artist selected to ensure quality artwork outputs and design to reflect local character

· Deliver cultural events that emanate from the projects

· Consult with the participants about provision, aspirations, barriers and ways to address these

· Discuss the results of consultation with: Community Planning Partnership to embed cultural planning, other service providers and relevant agencies to improve services

· Identify and contact? sections of the community who have not engaged with Pathfinder to establish why they did not wish to participate

Indicators for key performance aspects:

Achievement against each indicator set:

Activity (output)

• Develop project plan
• Devise consultation toolkit
• Recruit community organisations
• Develop projects
• Deliver cultural events
• Work with Community Planning Partnership, to explore/develop interface with cultural planning

Participation (output)

· Will work with 5 community groups in each of the 3 areas

· Will achieve 100 active participants in each of the 3 areas

· Will attract audiences of 400 in each of the 3 areas

· Will identify and contact? communities that have not engaged with Pathfinder to establish reasons for not participating

Satisfaction (outcome)

· Participants are satisfied with the project in which they took part

· Community groups value the projects

· The steering group is satisfied with the running and outcomes of the projects

· Funders and partners are satisfied that the overall project was good value for money

Impact (outcome)

Individuals

· Increased levels of confidence are observed amongst participants

· Increased social networks are reported amongst participants

· Greater likely hood of future participation is predicted

Communities/Groups

· Increased capacity built within the group to deliver cultural activities

· Increased confidence within the group to pursue their aspirations

· Growth of group

Value for money (output and outcome)

VFM outputs

· The cost of employing facilitators

· The cost of hiring/securing venues for projects

· The cost of other related aspects of delivering projects

VFM outcomes

· Members of the communities involved will have increased involvement with cultural opportunities

· Participants go on to deliver activities for themselves and others

· Etc

Data collected:

Baseline data

Collecting:

• Record the range of cultural provision currently available
• Record the number of museums, galleries and venues and how they can be accessed by public transport
• Survey the population of the target areas to discover how they currently interact with culture, how they use the facilities available and what their aspirations might be
• Discover what would encourage people to extend their current cultural participation

Next steps:

• Analyse survey results
• Establish barriers (lack of provision, access etc)
• Determine a means of reflecting people's wishes in making local provision and providing affordable access to the nearest facilities when not available locally

Delivery:

• Promote the project through local media, statutory and community bodies and record different media approaches
• Record amount of transport provided and used to and from activities and facilities
• Etc

Interim report

Final report

Outcomes

Progress information (how is the project developing/did it develop, compared with the original plan?

Main learning points