Hands Together Ludlow works directly with hundreds of local people in a year. Many have multiple interventions and many regularly attended events and activities. Measuring the impact of what we do is important and complex and this year we have partnered with Pilotlight to explore ways to collect, collate and use impact data more effectively. What would you say if we were to ask you questions such as:
How would you measure the impact of HTL delivering your emergency prescription when no one else can?
What difference would it make to you if we helped you learn how to use email, or facetime your grandchildren when you didn’t know how to?
How about Healthy Eating cookery classes or access to one-to-one help to fill in forms or write a CV?
What if you were lonely and isolated and then came regularly to Afternoon Tea and Community Lunch and made new friends?
These are the sorts of things we think about when trying to measure the impact of what we do.
Follow this link to read our annual report from 2023
One of the best things available to us is to ask those who benefit. Here are some of their words:
‘Coming here set me on track. It's nice to listen to conversation and engage with other people - not passive like just sitting at home and watching the telly. Helps me consider others and keeps me stimulated and interested in the world.’
‘My husband has dementia, so I am his carer. For me, this gives my week focus and a safe and welcoming place I can take him where everyone is understanding. In many ways it keeps me sane in a way, gives me people to have a conversation with.’
‘[HTL] are very good, they make people feel wanted. I don’t always feel wanted, I've never got married or anything so this is like a community to me.’
‘Traditional organisations (like the Red Cross) no longer have a visible presence or any local presence at all. HTL is a focus for people to help in the community and get involved and it fills a real need.’
‘It’s the only thing I've got to look forward to.’
‘I believe that they are doing a really worthwhile job and meeting a wide variety of needs in Ludlow.’