Learning from women and girls

Key insights from the five year Women and Girls Initiative
Research & evaluationPublic SectorCommunityGender & diversity






Still from the Women and Girls Initiative animation



Back in 2016, The National Lottery Community Fund (the Fund) invested over £44 million in the women and girls’ sector through its Women and Girls Initiative (WGI). We are proud to have been a key part of this work, delivering WGI Learning and Impact Services with our partners, DMSS Research and CWASU, since January 2018. As we now publish the Final Impact Report, it seems fitting to share a few reflections, and signpost to some of the WGI legacies.

It has been so refreshing and such a joy to work on the Women and Girls’ Initiative (WGI). It demonstrated what could be achieved when women and girls are listened to and given the time and space to access support as, when and for as long as it is needed. It was a brave and insightful investment from the Fund, with flexibility embedded. The WGI enabled projects to develop their expertise, improve the availability of holistic, specialist support and build stronger evidence of what works well. It supported projects to develop, adapt and grow, whilst ensuring the voice and influence of women and girls remained at the centre of this support.

As Learning and Impact Services partners between 2018 and 2022, we were also able to be flexible and adaptive to projects’ needs, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Activities included running Theory of Change and evaluation workshops, facilitating action learning groups, masterclasses and webinars — and bringing together a range of public outputs: blogs, briefings, reports, and audio-visual resources.

In 2020, when an in-person conference became impossible because of pandemic lockdowns, we adapted our support offer by hosting regular on-line community calls for project staff. As an alternative to the conference, we commissioned Leeds Animation Workshop to create an animation, involving project staff, volunteers and participants in the process. All published outputs produced through the Learning and Impact Services can be found through the Women and Girls Initiative home page and via references throughout the Final Impact Report.

Link for download:

https://www.tavinstitute.org/news/wgi-project-legacy

SOURCE:

https://www.tavinstitute.org/news/wgi-project-legacy(accessed 9.10.24)