Standing on the cusp of the second year of REALITIES, I find myself reflecting on processes throughout the last 11 months of the project. When it comes to researching evidence-based alternatives in living, imaginative, traumatised, integrated, and embodied systems (REALITIES), Process with a capital P becomes integral to collaborative research, working, and action, which—to me—is a standout quality of the project and one of the many reasons I excitedly jumped at the chance to be involved in it. Academia can often—whether purposefully or unintentionally—put up literal and figurative walls that create barriers instead of opportunities for large, cross-institution/cross-partner projects. Access to university resources [...]

Measuring Humanity in Green Spaces Dr Marisa de Andrade – PI for Measuring Humanity, School of Health in Social Science, Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry, University of Edinburgh A year ago, I delivered a training workshop to TCV practitioners on the Asset-Based Indicator Framework as part of Measuring Humanity. The participant-led research programme uses bottom-up creative community engagement to challenge policy makers and academics to reassess what counts as evidence when developing policies, practices, and recommendations. TCV practitioners on the Wild Ways Well programme have been using the framework as an evaluation tool to explore how the greenspace improvement programme supports individual resilience and [...]

Thoughts on evaluating Green Exercise and Our Natural Health Service Dominic Hall, Operations Leader - Communities and Biodiversity, The Conservation Volunteers I pride myself on being logically minded – and I am drawn instinctive to the idea of evidence led policy. The basic idea that decisions should be made based on solid, researched evidence as opposed to gut instinct, political expedience or personal agendas seems entirely compelling. However, the more you look at what this means in practice the more complex and challenging it becomes. Policy issues are complex, multi-dimensional and multi-facetted. Robust, research evidence is difficult to produce and tends from necessity [...]