Rural Wisdom - Final Evaluation Report

The aims of Rural Wisdom have evolved during the five years to reflect the changing nature of the project and the communities it was working with, but have remained focused on:

Rural Wisdom was a long-term project, designed as a three-stage journey to be taken with communities between 2017 – 2022:

NDTi were commissioned as the lead evaluation partner for Rural Wisdom in 2017 and remained as such until January 2020. At this time, the arrangements were reviewed and Outside the Box took over the evaluation of Rural Wisdom activity in Scotland, with NDTi leading the evaluation in Wales, reviewing the policy context that the project sat within in both nations, and drawing together this final report and a key learning document.

As Rural Wisdom draws to a close and the funding available stops, the focus of many involved in the project during the five years is now upon what this means for the communities, people, organisations and stakeholders in the future.

Outside the Box, Volunteering Matters and NDTi are looking for ways to continue working together and are developing ideas for future work where there is a shared interest.

Outside the Box and Volunteering Matters are also working on grant applications to ensure funding is available for particular community projects and activities as well as to share the learning via a series of planned events and ways for people to get updates through the Rural Wisdom website and social networks.