Background

For 40 years, St Anthony’s has had a presence in the East end of Newcastle, providing essential care services that have evolved alongside the needs of the community. While the organisation has consistently monitored and evaluated its delivery, it had never taken a step back to fully understand its holistic impact on the people it serves.

With this in mind, they set out to understand one central question: What impact does St. Anthony’s have on the local and wider community?

Explain was commissioned on a pro bono basis to answer this question - seeking to go beyond metrics and capture the real, lived experiences of service users, families, and staff.

Methodology

At the heart of the research was a commitment to putting people first. To truly understand the impact of care at St Anthony’s, a qualitative, human-centred approach was essential.

Over the course of the study, the Explain team immersed themselves in the day-to-day environments of St Anthony’s services. This involved spending time across multiple sites - observing interactions, building trust, and engaging directly with service users, families, staff and volunteers.

Through a combination of ethnographic observation, in-depth interviews, and focus groups the team captured rich, nuanced insights grounded in lived experience. Ethical considerations were central throughout, ensuring that all voices were represented with care, sensitivity, and respect.

Outcomes

The final report delivered a comprehensive community impact assessment, structured around key themes emerging from the research. Insights from across all fieldwork were woven into a vivid and emotionally resonant picture of impact, brought to life through real-life quotes and case studies. Rather than simply presenting findings, Explain crafted a cohesive, human-centred narrative - capturing not just what happens at St Anthony’s, but how it feels to be part of it.

By embedding themselves within the organisation, the Explain team captured both the visible outcomes of care and the subtle, often unseen moments that define lived experience. These small but powerful details - moments of connection, trust, and dignity - placed human experience firmly at the core of the evaluation.

Crucially, the report gives St Anthony’s a powerful platform to reflect on 40 years of service, clearly articulate its community impact, and focus on what matters most moving forward - strengthening its approach and sustaining high-quality care for the future.

Client Testimonial

“I judged that you had captured something of the essence of the organisation through your approach. I liked the language - it was vibrant and human, often research projects can be sterile.

Explain have given us an insight, not only into the soul of St Anthony’s, but have brought into sharp focus the ingredients that are necessary for an organisation to make an impact. This will be invaluable as we continue to be of service for the next 40 years.”

Choosing to support St Anthony’s on a pro bono basis also reflects Explain’s wider commitment to creating meaningful social value through the way we do business. As a North East-based organisation, we believe our impact should extend beyond the work we deliver for clients, using our time, skills and expertise to strengthen the communities around us. Supporting a long-established Newcastle organisation like St Anthony’s closely aligns with our socially conscious strategy, which focuses on supporting local jobs and businesses, investing in communities and creating positive, measurable impact. This project provided an opportunity to put those values into practice, using our research expertise to help a local organisation better understand, demonstrate and build on the difference it makes.