The Social Effectiveness Research Centre is an association of experts in the field of social effectiveness.  We are brought together by a common interest in increasing the effectiveness of the work done by individuals, projects and organisations working for the social good in the UK.

We believe that social organisations and projects often contain crucial knowledge and experience from which all projects and organisations could learn, and society as a whole could benefit.  

Current members of the Centre are:

Dr. Leon Quinn

Leon is an experienced evaluator, project manager and consultant, with over 15 years' worth of service helping organisations establish and improve their effectiveness and impact. Alongside his work with smaller organisations, he has also worked with local authorities, national charity and third sector bodies and the NHS, and prior to founding SERC spent several years working for Oxfam Cymru as its monitoring and evaluation coordinator and value analysis specialist. He has produced a wide range of evaluations as well as many other research publications, including cost-benefit and Social Return on Investment based analyses.

Ruth Bergan

Ruth is an ILM-accredited action research facilitator with particular interests in developing and communicating social policies and improving the effectiveness of individuals seeking to implement projects with social outcomes. A 2013 Fellow of the Clore Foundation's Social Leadership Programme, she is an experienced policy specialist who uses innovative methods to reach seldom engaged audiences. She is currently head of policy and advocacy at Transform Trade.

Dr. Anna Hraboweckyj

Anna is a leading social business adviser, with a wealth of experience in senior executive positions within the social sector. She is a member of the Institute of Economic Development, and in her role as director of Clever Elephant LLP has completed many research projects and evaluations and supported a range of organisations with their governance and business strategies. She is the author of the Birmingham Changing Futures Together Partnership's Perspective Studies series on working with service users with multiple needs, and has a keen personal interest in both bringing the voices of service users to policy-making and decision-taking.

Val Williams

Val is a youth-focused trainer, tutor and evaluator with of many years' standing working with social organisations to help them better establish and communicate their impact.  A first-language Welsh speaker, she has been lead consultant at Sylfaen Cymunedol for over two decades and worked extensively with a wide range of communities in Wales, as well as with school authorities, housing associations and residents organisations.  She has a particular focus in her work on helping projects for non-native English speakers to demonstrate their impact to English speaking audiences.

Barbara Parkinson

With fifteen years as an independent consultant, Barbara has managed many assignments, including partnership development and mergers with and for clients from all sectors. Her background is in community development and infrastructure in the voluntary sector, regionally and nationally, and in regeneration and investment in the statutory sector. Barbara specialises in helping organisations to identify their unique strengths and improve their productivity, and has helped numerous organisations introduce new collaborative working arrangements.

If you would like any further information about the Centre and its members, please get in touch with us by any of the means on the Contact Us page.