Evaluating our work
Impact on participants
New research from the Institute of Public Policy Research (ippr) has found how Raleigh overseas youth expeditions make a long term impact on participants from disadvantaged backgrounds.
ippr was commissioned by Raleigh to examine the long-term impact of the experiences on former participants from disadvantaged and working-class backgrounds. The research is the first study of its kind to evaluate the long-term impact of overseas expeditions.
For more information, read a summary of the report, download the full version and read the press release.
Dr Simon Beames from the University of Edinburgh did his PhD on the impact of the Raleigh expedition. He studied 14 young people on expedition in Ghana before, during and after their experience and concluded the following:
The findings of this case study show that participants developed a certain mental resilience, became more willing to undertake challenges, and gained a greater understanding of themselves. Interpersonally, young people developed an increased facility for working and living with people they did not know before. Finally, participants gained a greater appreciation of the modern conveniences they were accustomed to and learned about the economic and democratic differences between the UK and Ghana.
Critical elements of an expedition experience, Simon Beames, 2004
Read the full report
In 2007 Dr Beames and Dr Tim Stott from Liverpool John Moores University evaluated the impact of our autumn expedition in Costa Rica. They surveyed participants before and after their experience and found a significant improvement in:
- Confidence in dealing with people from different cultures and countries
- Mental resilience to succeed when the "chips are down"
- Self awareness
- Preparedness to influence group situations
- Ability to plan and lead group projects
Impact of our work in communities
Bryan Michell from the University of Birmingham researched our impact in Costa Rica, showing the positive impact of our work several years after the projects have been completed. Here's what he found:
The people of Carona all saw the project as benefiting the community, "it was somewhere for all to enjoy"; they said that they now had a new facility which was comfortable and could be used for meetings, assemblies, fundraising activities, fiestas, running courses (e.g. sewing), as a medical centre (for visiting medics), a place to stage cultural events, dancing, and as a place for visitors to stay. They saw the project as being "very important" to them and something that would not have happened without RI (Raleigh International), because "the government had not helped them in any way".
Gap year international volunteer programmes: are they irrelevant to the effort in reducing poverty? Michell, B., 2007. University of Birmingham.
