Evaluation
We work collaboratively with frontline services, local authorities, and survivor-led organisations to strengthen the quality, ethical grounding, and impact of service provision.
Why Evaluation Matters
Specialist services supporting survivors of violence and abuse operate under significant resource pressure while being expected to demonstrate measurable impact. Yet evaluation is often underfunded, fragmented, or designed around short-term outputs rather than long-term wellbeing and recovery.
Without robust and proportionate evaluation, effective practice can remain invisible, commissioning decisions may be driven by incomplete evidence, and opportunities for service improvement are lost. Survivors deserve support models that are not only compassionate and trauma-informed, but demonstrably effective.
Strengthening evaluation capacity within the sector is therefore not a technical exercise; it is central to improving outcomes, influencing commissioning, and building sustainable, evidence-informed systems of care
Without robust and proportionate evaluation, effective practice can remain invisible, commissioning decisions may be driven by incomplete evidence, and opportunities for service improvement are lost. Survivors deserve support models that are not only compassionate and trauma-informed, but demonstrably effective.
Strengthening evaluation capacity within the sector is therefore not a technical exercise; it is central to improving outcomes, influencing commissioning, and building sustainable, evidence-informed systems of care
VAMHN Evident (Launching 2027)
Evident is VAMHN’s practice-facing evaluation initiative, designed to strengthen the quality, credibility and impact of support provision for survivors of violence and abuse.
Evident combines academic rigour with proportionate, survivor-informed approaches tailored to the realities of frontline services. It responds to a clear sector need: specialist organisations are expected to demonstrate impact, yet evaluation is often under-resourced, externally imposed or poorly aligned with survivor-defined outcomes.
Evident aims to bridge that gap.
What Evident will do
Evident will provide structured evaluation support to specialist and community-based services working at the intersection of violence, abuse and mental health.
This will include:
- Designing proportionate mixed-methods evaluations
- Embedding survivor-defined outcome frameworks
- Supporting participatory and trauma-informed evaluation approaches
- Strengthening data collection and interpretation processes
- Producing clear, credible reporting for commissioners and funders
Our Approach
Evident is grounded in the principles that define VAMHN’s wider work:
- Survivor-informed and ethically grounded
- Rigorous but proportionate
- Collaborative rather than extractive
- Focused on long-term wellbeing, not short-term outputs
- Attentive to the realities of small and specialist services
Developing the model
We are currently developing Evident’s operational model and partnership framework. The initiative builds on VAMHN’s existing evaluation work and research on recovery, outcome measurement and participatory methods.
If you are interested in collaborating as Evident develops, we welcome early conversations.
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Current Practice-Focused Work
We work collaboratively with services and statutory partners to improve provision, strengthen trauma-informed responses, and ensure that systems support long-term recovery and wellbeing.
Evaluating Reach Out therapeutic provision (Redbridge Council)
We are evaluating a new model of linguistically matched, culturally tailored therapeutic support for domestic abuse survivors delivered through Redbridge Council’s Reach Out service.
Mental health impact of justice system engagement
We are examining how engagement with criminal and civil justice processes affects survivors’ mental health and recovery. This work aims to inform more trauma-informed statutory responses and improve coordination between legal and support systems.
Strengthening evaluation capability
We work with services to improve outcome selection, data collection and reporting processes in ways that are proportionate, ethical and aligned with survivor-defined wellbeing frameworks.
Emotional safety in violence-related spaces
Our previous work has explored emotional safety and wellbeing within violence and abuse research and professional settings, contributing to safer, trauma-informed ways of convening and collaboration.