Policy&Practice at St Chad’s College was commissioned to evaluate the National Youth Agency’s ‘The Environment Now’  programme of work funded by the Big Lottery’s ‘Our Bright Future’ initiative in 2016.  The project was also supported by O2 Telefonica.

Our Bright Future allowed the NYA to to work intensively with young people over three years developing environmental projects. Funding was awarded to undertake 50 projects devised and run by young people who were, in turn, supported and trained through a comprehensive programme to develop their sustainability learning, employability skills, digital understanding and self-confidence.

An  investment of up to £10,000 was made in each of the 50 projects to help meet key environmental challenges.  Project leaders were supported by NYA programme staff and specialist O2 Telefonica mentors. The project aimed to help produce sustainability leaders of the future.

The evaluation of the programme was undertaken independently by Professor Tony Chapman and Stephanie Rich of Policy&Practice who were involved from the initial planning stage to design a comprehensive and rigorous methodology to blend qualitative and quantitative data.

The final report was published in January 2019. NYA The Environement Now Programme Evaluation (January 2019)