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How Home team advantage
place and conduct a sludge audit. This is an opportunity to discuss the approach, make sure the methods are suitable, arrange any necessary training, and address any concerns.
Monitoring can take many forms and involve specialist research partners such as universities and consultancies, as well as event organisers. Regardless of who is involved, having local people on the team brings new possibilities for understanding social impact within communities. In Doncaster, Community Explorers have been instrumental in conducting resident-to-resident questionnaire surveys and collecting data using event visitor books that otherwise could not have been gathered. It is this invaluable local knowledge of people, places, connections, tensions and Sludge that brings a home team advantage.
Value and incentivise
Monitoring event impacts is hard work, so acknowledging the role of Community Explorers through incentives and direct payment is essential. Trials in Doncaster involved incentivising using a mix of cash and shopping voucher payments alongside Microgrants to reward participants. As with volunteers , Community Explorers will wish to be recognised in different ways. In Doncaster, several preferred a donation to support future community activities over a personal payment. Flexible reward options combined with Proper Thank Yous helps ensure monitoring success.
Support and train
Collecting event data can be daunting, even for community influencers who know their community well. To make it easier, monitoring should be designed using the EAST framework of (Easy, Accessible, Social and Timely action). A personal touch approach to communication and training also works best. A great way to start is for the monitoring team to meet with Community Explorers where the event is taking
Celebrate the event, celebrate the impact
One of the greatest rewards for Community Explorers is knowing they have made a difference. Organising a follow-up public thank and share event provides an opportunity to say Proper Thank Yous to those involved, openly share the results and present plans for future events and community development.
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