Description of the goods or services required
Introduction and Background
Social Farms and Gardens is a UK wide charity supporting communities to farm, garden and
grow together. Our vision: ‘People and communities reaching their full potential through
nature-based activities as a part of everyday life’.
Tyfu Powys Project Overview
Tyfu Powys will provide capacity building support to community growing sites and social enterprises
across Powys, creating:
- Resilient, sustainable and accessible sites
- Embedding responsibility for, and pride in, place
- Supporting the creation of beautiful spaces across Powys towns and rural areas for all to
enjoy and get involved in
Support no matter where you are on your development journey to create those beautiful spaces,
better soils and habitats and more connected people.
Delivered through network/s, tailored mentoring development support, Have A Grow participation
support, event support, mapping and orchard leader training.
Each site we work with is embedded in its own community, empowering local people, including
those who are: hard to reach; economically inactive; in food & fuel poverty; single parents; aging -
keeping them active, healthy and continuous learners.
The specific activities Tyfu Powys will deliver are:
1. Powys Community Growing Network/s: asset-based community development model to
share knowledge and experience, increasing skills of local people through training sessions
and gatherings for community growers in Powys. Anticipated number of participants: 75.
2. Development Support for established and new groups: to encourage development of new
community growing projects and sustain existing, including some capital infrastructure
expenditure. 60 days support.
3. Have A Grow days 2024: supporting 20 community gardens to open their gates and
welcome those who haven’t previously participated in growing, widening prospective
volunteering opportunities. An SF&G national initiative designed to bring in new visitors and
volunteers and create opportunities to raise funds through sales, donations and new
supporters.
4. Low Carbon Grow Local: encouraging positive behaviour change from individuals and groups
to reduce their carbon output by working with Powys groups on low carbon growing
knowledge sharing events, with those attending delivering further low carbon community
activities. 10 sites.
5. Grow, Buy, Eat Local: changing habits to seasonal food, with beneficiaries gaining
connection with community growing sites and introducing capabilities to create resilience
against cost of living. 10 sites.
6. Mapping: working with our Powys Community Growing Network/s to enable self-use of our
GIS mapping, developed with Digital Commons, compatible with LA, Welsh Government and
Natural Resources Wales. 10 sites.
7. Orchards: Orchard Leader programme for 10 orchard leaders and establishment of localised
Powys Productive Community Orchard networks to make use of the fruit from the new and
established community orchards.
Increasing the use of Welsh language throughout the course of the project and evaluating Tyfu
Powys are key project outcomes.
Tyfu Powys Evaluation: Key Aims
1. Present robust, transparent evidence of the impacts of the project activities
Evidence of project aims, outputs, outcomes, plus any unexpected outcomes, challenges and
changes that are robust and engaging (photos, videos, video diaries).
2. Reveal and document how project impacts and aims are achieved
Illustrate what key mechanisms were needed across the project for the aims, outputs and
outcomes to be achieved – plus identifying any unexpected outcomes, challenges and
changes. A clear path/timeline of what occurred to achieve the project aims, outputs and
outcomes and how the unexpected outcomes, challenges and changes happened, giving specific
examples where appropriate.
3. Advise on evidence gathering and presenting our outputs and outcomes
Tyfu Powys has a variety of outputs and outcomes to report upon and your work will assist us in
employing the best methods to achieve and present this with impact.
4. Support and facilitate sharing of learning between actors.
Tyfu Powys will have a variety of project actors:
• Network/s of organisers of community growing activities and sites (‘site
beneficiaries/project sites’): exploring their feelings on the network, in their own words.
Asking questions about how they are learning, the benefit, impact and continuation.
• Internal Project deliverers: Social Farms & Gardens (SF&G) staff, freelancers and contractors
• Beneficiaries of the project sites (volunteers/visitors to community growing activities and
sites)
• Stakeholders: those who assist with and may benefit from project activity, e.g. PAVO, Powys
PSB, relevant Powys County Council departments, ecodyfi and other SPF Communities and
Place projects
Talking to a robust selection of those involved/affected by the project, uncovering their goals,
understanding where they want to go to and how being part of the project helps.
In particular here, organisers of community growing activities and sites (‘site
beneficiaries/project sites’) should feedback clearly and honestly to SF&G, to deeply feel the
benefits of the network, ensuring that a self-sustaining network is a priority. Evaluator evidence
on how this learning occurs during project delivery via actor feedback will support SF&G and we
envisage the final months of the project to share this learning between project actors, as part of
the project exit strategy.
5. Test assumptions about how to achieve change
We require evidence of the benefits of Tyfu Powys. You will provide us with facts and figures
that will externally demonstrate the changes we have brought about by engaging people with
our project. We also wish to test our internal assumptions about the way change is brought
about.
6. Gather learning about how to expand and extend project impacts
Recommendations for future work, linking to relevant policy. Providing SF&G and the site
beneficiaries (the organisers of community growing activities and sites) with evidence to gain
future support.
Key Aims will be achieved by:
• Participation in project planning, development and dissemination
• Collecting primary data from beneficiaries, project partners and stakeholders e.g.
questionnaires/ interviews/ surveys/ video/ photo
• Analysing secondary data from beneficiaries, project partners and stakeholders e.g. reports/
social media/ website content/ news stories
• An understanding of local strategic priorities
Further Information:
Evaluation will deliver qualitative and quantitative data by an independent, with internal support
on data collection. Data to be collected and reported regularly, with evaluators advising on
suitable indicators, methods, tools and analysis.
• We want: key information, facts and figures that can be used as a way of influencing
decision makers which should allow us to share outcomes with our membership in a user
friendly and accessible way. To do this, the evaluation will provide us with infographics,
timelines and visual representations of facts and figures, that are accessible and visually
attractive.
• Consideration that different audiences have different needs. E.g. dyslexia (friendly
documents), neuro-divergency, auditory learners and kinaesthetic learners. We will aid the
evaluator in collecting this data, evaluator to analyse, gather, and present the data.
• Data collection should be quantitative (e.g., no of groups; no of events) and qualitative data
(e.g., interviews, quotes and stories) and include stories, quotes, and information from
primary sources (our site beneficiaries). The qualitative data collected by the evaluator
should be turned into quantitative data where appropriate e.g. ‘72% of attenders said their
health had improved’.
• Initially we (SF&G Tyfu Powys team) will meet regularly with evaluators to establish what is
required, both from us and from evaluation team. These meetings will become less regular
once roles, requirements and expectations are agreed and established. (Bi-weekly,
progressing to monthly).
• Evaluation will be embedded into the project activity from the outset, as soon as evaluators
are appointed. Evaluators will work closely with the Tyfu Powys team and will provide advice
and guidance to make data collection simple and consistent.
• Evaluators will participate in at least two Network meetings to ensure findings are
embedded in the wider picture of land access for horticulture.
• Evaluators will meet with a robust number of participating groups 1:1 to collect data.
• Evaluators will visit a number (tbc) of Have a Grow events.
• Evaluators will keep abreast of planning legislation, policy and other initiatives in Powys and
further afield in Wales, to ensure the final report is in tune with wider strategies and
practices. In particular, links should be made with UK Levelling Up/Shared Prosperity, Net
Zero Strategy; UK Industrial Strategy; Wales Net Zero 2030; Wellbeing of Future
Generations; Nature Recovery Plan for Wales; WG’s Programme for Government, Economic
Action Plan and Foundational Economy principles; Prosperity for All – Low Carbon Wales;
emerging Community Food Strategy; Healthy Weight Wales; Growing Mid Wales Regional
Investment Plan; Powys County Council Corporate & Strategic, LDP and Nature Recovery
Plan; Health & Care Strategy for Powys; Powys PSB Wellbeing Plan and Sustainable Land
Management objectives as priorities
SF&G will be responsible for translation and printing of the evaluation and coordinating a final event
where the findings of the evaluation will be shared. This is tentatively scheduled for early December
2024.
Outputs – by 10 December 2024
• One final designed evaluation report ready for translation and distribution, to include
recommendations for policy and decision makers in Powys and beyond
• One Executive Summary ready for distribution
• Infographics / visual report for use on social media / website
We are interested in seeing responses that consider ways of working with our project participants
and beneficiaries – methodologies and styles that will result in a deeper engagement with them, and
not result in multiple feedback. For example, Egin’s Proving and Improving.
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