Maximising personal and social impact: Tailored support for Churchill Fellows

At a glance: I partnered with the Churchill Fellowship to develop and pilot a programme of personalised support to enable Fellows to access coaching, mentoring and training to develop the skills needed to make the most out of researching and sharing their Fellowship projects.

The challenge: Travelling Fellowships, a unique opportunity that comes with unique challenges

Every year the Churchill Fellowship invests in over 100 Fellows to conduct research overseas and bring their learning back to benefit communities in the UK. Any UK Citizen can become a Fellow, and Fellows come from all walks of life – bringing diverse professional and lived experiences and interests. Fellowships focus on wide-ranging topics; from arts and culture or ageing, to mental health or environmental conservation.

A Fellowship can be a huge undertaking, especially for the many Fellows who complete it alongside a demanding job and family life. It can also be emotionally challenging for Fellows pursuing projects on sensitive topics, or ones they have personal experience of.

Based on feedback from previous Fellows, the Fellowship team wanted to explore what types of additional support could help Fellows get the best out of their Fellowships – both for their personal development, and the impact their research findings have.

The approach: Consulting with Fellows and staff to offer support that’s both tailored and streamlined

I worked closely with the Fellowship team to co-create a pilot support programme for a selection of 2024 Fellows. My support spanned three phases:

1. Scoping & consultation

Built a clear understanding of the needs of Fellows and the Fellowship team.
Agreed principles for the pilot, e.g. individualised & flexible for Fellows, simple for team to administer.
Identified and explored six types of support that could meet needs.
Consulted with Fellows from previous years via a focus group, to prioritise and refine the support to pilot; coaching, mentoring and access to training.

2. Pilot development & implementation

Developed processes and tools to enable implementation, and supporting materials for Fellows, coaches and mentors (e.g. mentoring manual).
Reviewed and improved these with the team and supported integration to existing systems.
Sourced recommended coaches, and briefed mentors and coaches through 1:1 calls and a group launch session.
The Fellowship team will manage the pilot from July 2024 until the end of 2025, serving a selection of 2025 Fellows.

3. Evaluation & iteration

Currently creating evaluation tools to help the team understand what’s worked well and what can be improved and scaled in future years.

The difference: Fellows shaping their own personal development

So far, take-up of the programme has been strong, with 13 Fellows participating in the pilot – they will benefit from support including training, coaching and peer mentoring from previous Fellows.

We hope this additional support will improve their experience as Fellows, as well as the impact of their Fellowship projects and their personal development. These outcomes will become clearer when we evaluate the programme but we anticipate that they will include:

Improved skills for completing their Fellowship projects.
Improved self-awareness and self-confidence.
Improved wellbeing throughout Fellowships.
Fellowship findings being communicated more effectively and reaching wider audiences.

In future years, the Churchill Fellowship team hopes to broaden access to the most appropriate support, so that all Fellows can get the best out of their Fellowships.

Clients and partners

What the client says

“It’s been brilliant working with Natalie on designing and bringing our support pilot into delivery. We’ve created a pragmatic and agile programme for delivering individualised support to Fellows with a diverse range of needs.

Natalie’s dedication to documenting the process alongside the quality of the resources she has produced has been incredibly helpful for sharing the intent and outcomes with the wider team, for capturing learning and designing a robust approach to evaluating the pilot’s impact, all of which will inform what we do next.

I have greatly appreciated Natalie’s warm and supportive project management skills and her considered and flexible approach to the practical challenges we’ve encountered along the way. Natalie is a brilliant ‘thinking partner’, she is particularly skilled at designing inclusive feedback processes and translating that feedback into a practical and realistic plan that will fit with your team’s capacity and resources.

I have no hesitation in recommending Natalie to other organisations for supporting with programme design, project management and evaluation, as well as designing and delivering focus groups, induction and training sessions.”

Sara Buchanan, Co-Director of Programmes, The Churchill Fellowship

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