Wednesday, 27 November 2019

Evaluating Wellbeing

Wellbeing is included in almost every evaluation we complete. It is such an important part of life, and is about being comfortable - whether that is with your emotional health, your physical health, your everyday lifestyle, or just the situation or place you are in.

Comfortable is a really important word here. Did you know that it’s in the official definition of Wellbeing?

Evaluation definition, Wellbeing:
 “the feeling of being comfortable, healthy or happy”. 

We use many different evaluation methods for measuring Wellbeing, but the ones we use the most are probably the Warwick-Edinburgh Scale of Wellbeing, or one that relates to the Five Ways to Wellbeing. This was originally a piece of research carried out by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) in 2007. It's very easy to remember and it feels right, which is when you know it is right. 




Making new friends (or just socialising in general), feeling useful (as though you are giving something back to the world or society), noticing more (which could be the beauty of nature, or what you are grateful for), actually being active (regardless of whether that is a gentle walk, some swimming, or a hardcore gym session), and keeping learning (new skills, knowledge or facts) do make all of us feel better in ourselves.

It is worth thinking about how your project or activity is impacting on the five ways or, of course, we could do that for you. Measuring changes in these will often be a great way to demonstrate impact.