Initiatives

Discovery Learning Programme - Third Sector Lab cohort

INT-199-553

About

Why the work is being done

This programme is part of the Catalyst and The National Lottery Community Fund COVID-19 Digital Response funding initiative; a partnership between The National Lottery Community Fund and CAST, supported by the Catalyst network.

The aim of the programme is to equip charities and nonprofits with the tools and skills to understand the needs and behaviours of their communities, and support them to develop digital projects focused on a validated problem area.  

Problem to solve

The programme takes a cohort of up to ten organisations through a four-week training course for them to learn and practice Discovery on a real digital challenge facing their communities. This includes teaching the fundamentals of digital service design, building charities’ user research capabilities and supporting them to validate a problem area they may wish to explore with further Catalyst funding or by internal stakeholder engagement. 

Who are the users and what do they need to do

The users are a mix of nonprofits and Civil society organisations, and their networks looking to identify the needs and behaviours of their community, and how digital, data and design can best support them.

Nonprofits within this learning cohort:

  1. Manchester Refugee Support Network - http://mrsn.org.uk/
  2. Skills 4 You - https://www.skills-4-you.com/ 
  3. Caxton Youth Organisation - https://caxtonyouth.org/
  4. The Matthew Project - https://www.matthewproject.org/
  5. London Arts in Health Forum - https://www.lahf.org.uk/
  6. Citizens of the World Choir - http://www.citizensoftheworldchoir.org/
  7. WECIL LTD - https://wecil.co.uk/
  8. Aspens Charities - https://www.aspens.org.uk/
  9. Face Front Inclusive Theatre - https://www.facefront.org/
  10. Refugee Women Connect - https://www.refugeewomenconnect.org.uk/

Key project resources