Find your place in the field of good food

Our goal is to connect good people with good food. We advertise sustainable food jobs and training opportunities to help jobseekers and employers find each other.

Roots to Work is a project of Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming.

Job description

We are commissioning an independent evaluator to assess the impact of our project Growing Knowsley's Future - exploring the agricultural history of the borough of Knowsley. The project aims to explore how Knowsley has shifted from being predominantly agricultural to ‘food desert' since the Second World War. We will be working with Knowsley Archives to investigate and catalogue previously untapped records, working closely with community groups across the borough to document and celebrate local history and traditions relating to food and farming, and working with freelance artists and in partnership with local community colleges to share this work through an exhibition and online content. www.growingknowsley.org 

Some of the project activity will take place at our base on the Knowsley Estate, where we will be able to hold workshops focused on craft, cooking and storytelling. The project will involve people of all ages living in Knowsley, working with freelance artists and the core project delivery team.

The project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. We are looking for a consultant who can help us to evaluate how well we have met the outcomes we specified in our project application; extrapolate the lessons learned and make recommendations for the future. The consultant will have to work with NLHF’s evaluation guidance in mind in developing appropriate research methodologies.

PROJECT TIMESCALE

Appointment of evaluation consultant/contracting:May 2025

Project activity: December 2024 – June 2025

Launch of exhibition: Autumn 2025

Project completion and final reporting: February 2026

THE ROLE OF THE EVALUATION CONSULTANT

The evaluator will:

• Work with us to articulate a theory of change for the project.

• Design appropriate methodologies to assess the impact of the project, bearing in mind that participants will include children and vulnerable adults.

We anticipate that the consultant will be engaged in some direct datacollection from participants, but that they will also design evaluation resources which the project team can use to collect feedback from participants, providing training as needed.

• Carry out research – we are keen to hear about your suggested approach to the evaluation, but expect that it will include a mix of participant surveys, observation, interviews and/or focus groups; collection of feedback from exhibition visitors; interviews and feedback sessions with the project delivery team.

• Provide formative feedback at an agreed midpoint, and full evaluation report at the end of the project.

Our priorities for this evaluation are to:

• Identify the extent to which the outputs and outcomes specified within this application have been delivered, and how we have met the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s four priority outcomes: saving heritage; protecting the environment; inclusion, access and participation; organisational stability.

• Evidence any changes in participants’ wellbeing, engagement in learning and pride in place.

• Evidence any changes in participants’ intent to take personal action to address food poverty and sustainability issues in their community.

• Assess the extent to which we have succeeded in making the project as accessible as possible to local people, and reached our priority audiences (identified in our NLHF application as communities facing economic and educational disadvantage, young people under 25, older people over 65, and agricultural workers).

• Identify successful approaches which could be replicated in future projects, and provide recommendations for further community activity engaging with local food heritage.

The project team will support the collection of data and take responsibility for ensuring that material is provided in a timely and appropriate format to the evaluator.

Application information

In the first instance, contact lucy@feedbackglobal.org for the full job description and a copy of the project plan. Following that, please provide a CV plus an outline of your approach to this tender (no more than 2 pages) setting out:

• why you are interested in this piece of work
• previous experience of delivering similar projects
• your suggested approach to this piece of work
• details of 2 people we can contact for a reference

Please mention Roots to Work when applying for these jobs