Research and evaluation of the O2 Think Big corporate social responsibility initiative
Professor Tony Chapman, Dr Peter van der Graaf, Dr Victoria Bell, Helen Bussell, Emma Dunkerley.
Background
The Social Futures Institute has won a major contract by O2/Fundación Telefónica to undertake a social audit of a new social initiative to help young people make a contribution to their communities. The O2 Think Big project aims to challenge negative stereotypes held about young people in the wider population.
This is O2’s main corporate social responsibility programme over the next three years and involves a multi-million pound investment in young people’s futures. The O2-led project will be run in partnership with two national youth charities - UK Youth and National Youth Agency. Led by Professor Tony Chapman, the University’s role is to assist in the development of the project and to measure its positive social impact over time.
Aims
The O2 Think Big project will fund many projects led by young people over the next three years. Young people will be encouraged to propose projects which make a real contribution to their community and to help them try out new ideas, build their skills and confidence and show that young people’s activities can be a very positive force in society.
This is an open and inclusive programme and there are few restrictions on who is able to apply for a grant. Young people aged between 12 and 25 can apply. Providing that they have two referees, agree to join training and mentoring programmes to support them in their project, and can explain how their project will make a difference.
Many projects will be supported by national or local charitable youth organisations which already work with young people. As a UK wide project, organisations are involved in the programme across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Others will be open applications from any young person who wants to apply via the Think Big website.
The project aims to challenge stereotypes about young people and to give everyone a chance of getting involved. To achieve this ambitious aim, the project team will make a particular effort to reach young people in less affluent communities, young people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities and also young people who have disabilities or limiting illnesses.
Researching the project
The team of researchers from Teesside will undertake research on several dimensions:
Impact for the young people involved
We will use a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to assess how the project contributes to the building of young people’s confidence and pro-social behaviour. These will include observation, interview, photo elicitation research and analysis of levels of participation by area, ethnicity and educational achievement.
Impact on the local community
We will explore the impact of the project on the extent and experience of volunteering locally, especially amongst O2 employee volunteers. We will also assess the impact of the project by interviewing local stakeholders in the public, private and third sectors. The purpose of this is to find out how well the project contributes to a sense of community cohesion and wellbeing.
Impact on wider civil society
We will use quantitative measures to show the impact of the project in societal terms by challenging stereotypical views of young people. We will also influence future social policy interventions at local and national level through dissemination of the research findings on what motivates young people and encourages them to make a difference to their communities.
How the research will be done
The research will measure the impact of the project on communities and young people’s pro-social behaviour using quantitative and qualitative methods. The aim is to triangulate data from many different sources in order to build a comprehensive picture of the project’s impact, including:
- longitudinal work on changing attitudes and pro-social behaviour of young people who lead projects
- community evaluation studies which assess the impact of the projects on local communities in five areas
- use of photo-elicitation research to demonstrate how the project changes young people’s perceptions of the community and society
- an in depth evaluation of the impact of the programme for O2 employee volunteers who will offer mentoring and practical support to projects
- analysis of data to provide an indication of the social impact of the programme using an innovative new approach to measure social return on investment
Findings
Findings from the research will be published at regular intervals to show how the project contributes to individuals and community wellbeing.
