Evaluating real change in the real world: Creativity, connection and the unseen as felt evidence in ‘Aspiring Communities’

With austerity, comes increased accountability. Prove best value for money. Evidence how interventions improve outcomes. Measure how “our most deprived and fragile communities” co-produce sustainable “local solutions that address local priorities and needs, increase active inclusion and build on the assets of local communities to reduce poverty and to enable inclusive growth”. But how do you prove real change in these communities, especially during these extraordinary times when the pandemic has disproportionally impacted the unemployed, those with existing long-term physical or mental health conditions, women, Black Asian Minority Ethnic and LGBQT+ communities people, isolated, aging populations and digitally excluded individuals? How do you evaluate community-led, asset-based projects with these marginalised populations and prove they’ve improved lives when wider determinants of inequality perpetuate?