News & thoughts

NCS Trust, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and the Centre for Young Lives - with support from YMCA George Williams College and Leeds Beckett University - have partnered to explore the evidence linking participation in enrichment activities to improved academic attendance.

The first in this series, we spoke to YMCA Heart of England who have been implementing the College's measurement tools to streamline their data processes and tailor their organisation's services for young people.

The College's Dom Weinberg ponders what the impact would be if we ceased evaluation in youth work.

We're looking for evidence of youth voice activity to feature in a brand new Youth Voice Observatory, coming this autumn!

YMCA George Williams College is proud to unveil its latest training offer, an exclusive support package for all those working with and for young people across the YMCA Federation.

Announcement: YMCA George Williams College has today announced a new sector-wide alliance, bringing together leading voices and practices in shared measurement to evidence the impact of quality youth work.

The College's Head of Research and Evaluation Liz Phillips shares learning on 'positive masculinity', an innovative approach driving forward critical support for boys and young men.

In this blog, Sophie Payne shares examples of how the team at Student Hubs have worked towards achieving the College’s Impact and Improvement Standards, and how the standards can support intentional design, delivery, and learning practices.

For National Storytelling Week, Catherine Mitchell and Hannah Warsame explore the relationship between storytelling and data collection, and our duty towards the stories that sit behind our data.

We are thrilled to announce the expansion of the YMCA George Williams College Regional and National Impact Networks, welcoming Youth Scotland and Youth Cymru to our existing peer network across the UK.

In this read, Bethia McNeil looks back at ten years of the Centre for Youth Impact, looks forward to new beginnings, and explores evaluation’s shift from the ‘marginal’ to the ‘mainstream’. 

This week, YMCA England & Wales will host the first Four Nations Youth Work Conference, bringing together youth workers from across England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland to begin building a national youth work network!

In this latest read, YMCA George Williams College's Research Fellow Tom Burke reflects on his key takeaways from adopting a collaborative outcome reporting approach to evaluating youth voice, as part of our Establishing Youth Voice evaluation.

In this latest read, the College's Kat Harris reflects on how intentional and consistent investment in training and development can reap great rewards for both organisations and practitioners. 

In celebration of Black History Month, members of the team have curated a list on work that celebrates, embodies or shines a light on Black history, experiences, and voices.

In this latest read, the College's Hannah Quail shares emerging learning from our groundbreaking Multi-site Trial of Mentoring project, supported by Youth Endowment Fund.