Understanding the Benefits of a Social Care Programme #ORblog

CORDA recently completed a project for the WAVE Trust - a charity committed to improving the welfare of children – as part of its support of The OR Society’s Pro Bono scheme. The scheme connects volunteer analysts with charities and other not-for-profit organisations to work on short-term projects to help them to make evidence-based decisions for operational improvements.

Ben Ludford, a senior consultant at CORDA, led the project and explains: “Working with the WAVE Trust was a great experience. Not only were we able to support a charity that provides such a valuable service for children but it also gives volunteers like me the opportunity to tackle different kinds of problems in their entirety, using a range of OR and analytics techniques, and other skills to help good cause.”

The WAVE Trust has a particular focus on improving social and emotional development and mental health, and preventing child maltreatment. The project saw CORDA work closely with the charity to develop a business case for it to present to local authorities in a bid to secure funding for a pilot of its social care programme Pioneer Communities.

CORDA’s analysts worked with the Trust to understand its current business case and to identify where further work was needed. This highlighted that the WAVE Trust had a good understanding of the costs and delivery of the programme, but that there was a need to develop a better understanding of the benefits and how this tied to financial savings for the local authorities. This benefit information could then be linked with the cost data to create a cost benefit model showing the payback of the programme over time.

Using its modelling expertise, CORDA planned several ways in which benefit data could be collected, delivering a report with advice on how this could be achieved. It also built a model that provided a cost-benefit analysis.

This is the first pro bono project CORDA has delivered through The OR Society’s scheme. Projects through the scheme usually involve data analysis, impact measurement, options appraisal, risk analysis, strategic planning/review, scheduling & process improvement.

As well as providing companies with an opportunity for its employees to get involved in pro bono work, it also provides third sector organisations like The Wave Trust with a range of benefits including access to analytics experts, help with identifying and clarifying problems and finding real solutions that improve what they do.

To find out more about the scheme or to request support for a charity or third sector organisation, please visit www.theorsociety.com/probono

Free software software/tools available to O.R./analytical professionals

A variety of analytical and modelling techniques have been used for Pro Bono O.R. projects so far, including:

·       discrete event simulation,

·       statistical analysis/data mining,

·       forecasting,

·       process modelling,

·       system dynamics.

 As a result we have started compiling an evolving list of software / tools which may help to solve different types of problem. These tools could be useful not only for those working on our 3^rd sector projects but O.R./analytical professionals looking to develop their all-round “O.R. toolkit”.

The list so far includes 40 tools across a range of areas including:

·         Statistical analysis (e.g. PSPP, R)

·         Data visualisation (e.g. D3, Gephi, Vizable)

·         Geospatial and mapping (e.g. QGIS, GDAL, MapsData)

·         Programming languages (e.g. Python, Ruby)

·         Databases (e.g. PostGres, SQLlilte, ArangoDB)

·         Optimisation (e.g. Pyomo, OpenSolver)

·         Simulation (e.g. SimPy, Insight Maker)

·         Supply Chain (e.g. OpenBoxes, Odoo)

The list is ever-evolving and we would welcome further contributions or to hear about any tools or software you have successfully used in the past. Ideally the software should be free to use. The list can be accessed at https://www.dropbox.com/s/crkoc002bo0j37p/Useful%20Software%20list.xlsx?dl=0.

Please email any suggestions to felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com.

If you want to find out more about volunteering for a project more information on the scheme is available here

Two #ProBonoOR projects that can be carried out remotely

Please find details of a new project below. 

VfMH - Volunteers for Mental Health

Information about the organisation:

Charitable objectives: The relief of illness, poverty and distress in the British Isles or in any country wheresoever such illness, poverty or distress shall arise as a result of war, civil commotion, civil unrest, persecution or discrimination. The promotion of social inclusion for those at risk of exclusion through institutionalisation, mental health need and learning disability, residing in Romania; in particular by raising public awareness and supporting the development of community based services

Main activities of the organisation:  See project scope

Project summary:

Project: Organisational modelling for UK based charity operating in Romania – Undertake research examining the best future operating model and business case proposition for a UK charitable organisation operating in Romania

Time commitment: approx. 20-30 hours

Location:  Remote

Please read project scope  and if you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return to me along with your CV by midday on Monday 20^th June.

We are still looking for a volunteer for the following project

miKind Online

Information about the organisation:

Charitable objectives: Provide a platform with Online Global Interactive Map of community projects worldwide. Bring together communities worldwide and provide website features that facilitate knowledge and info sharing, collaborations and partnership opps.

Main activities of the organisation:  Social - Creating, Developing and Running online global community platform. Enterprise – Global Partnership Service at community level.

Project summary:

Project: Global partnership analysis of miKind registered NGO’s: miKind wants to develop analytics that will enable them to understand and better serve the different communities they work with.

Time commitment: approx. 5 days

Location:  Remote

Please read project scope  and if you feel you are able to offer your assistance please complete the application form and return to me along with your CV by midday on Thursday 9th June.

I look forward to hearing from you and once again thank you for your help and support.

For further information about the scheme please visit: http://www.theorsociety.com/Probono   

Follow me on  twitter       LinkedIn

Pro Bono and Software

Guest blog from Jon Tecwyn, Department of Energy and Climate Change

I have recently joined the steering committee for the Pro Bono O.R. scheme – a project which partners O.R. analysts with third sector organisations to provide free consultancy for a range of operational improvements and strategic planning projects. Projects generated so far have ranged from dog modelling to simulating shift patterns, measuring impact to supporter donation process mapping.

A variety of analytical and modelling techniques have been used so far, including:

·       discrete event simulation,

·       statistical analysis/data mining,

·       forecasting,

·       process modelling,

·       system dynamics.

My first suggestion as part of the committee was that we should provide O.R. analysts partaking in projects with an evolving list of software / tools which may help to solve different types of problem. These tools could be useful not only for those working on our 3^rd sector projects but OR Society members looking to develop their all-round “O.R. toolkit”.

The list so far includes 14 tools across a range of areas:

·       Statistical analysis (e.g. PSPP, R)

·       Data visualisation (e.g. Vizable)

·       Programming languages (e.g. Python, Ruby)

·       Databases (e.g. PostGres, PostGIS)

·       Simulation (SimPy)

·       Mapping software (e.g. MapsData)

 MapsData: Mapping car crashes in the UK

(Source: http://www.mapsdata.co.uk/wp-content/themes/inquiron/images/accident-heat.jpg)

The list is ever-evolving and we would welcome further contributions or to hear about any tools or software you have successfully used in the past. Ideally the software should be free to use. The list can be accessed here 

Please email any suggestions to felicity.mcleister@theorsociety.com.

If you want to find out more about volunteering for a project more information on the scheme is available here: http://www.theorsociety.com/probono

Knowing your audience - completed #ProBonoOR project with Bloodwise

Bloodwise is the UK's specialist blood cancer charity. Bloodwise contacted Pro Bono O.R. to request support from an analyst who could help them to 'know their audience better'.

Bloodwise’s wealth of data presented an opportunity to improve their knowledge about their supporters; they were to keen to understand how many different groups of supporters they had and what makes these groups different from each other.

Details of the project can be seen in the case study slide below.

The volunteer commented about the project: 

'It was a very fulfilling experience, it gave me a chance to meet a nice bunch of people and contribute to a great cause. Moreover it allow me to experiment with different modelling techniques and it was great to see that the analytics outputs were well received. One important aspect is that the analysis identifies some quick wins which should allow Bloodwise to optimise their fundraising efforts. Bloodwise will also be able to re-use much of the R code for further analysis like an attitudinal segmentation.

To find out more about Pro Bono O.R. please click here