Understanding What Works, Why It Works – and what it takes!
C.A.R.E. Brief History
Streets of Growth’s Centre for Applied Research & Evaluation (C.A.R.E.) grew out of 30 years of frontline youth intervention and global learning. First developed in 2019 as the Applied Research & Client Experience Unit (AR-CX), it later evolved and advanced into C.A.R.E. through the leadership and experience of Streets of Growth practitioners.
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To become a leading third-sector academic powerhouse for evidence-led and informed youth intervention work, learning and training. Where academic rigor meets the urgency of frontline harm reduction to improve safeguarding and deliver measurable and demonstratable outcomes for young people and practitioners.
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Relentlessly amplifying young voices, empowering front-edge practitioners, partnering with academics and accelerating innovation by turning hard‑won experience into the continual generation of evidence-led data insights that strengthen what works, challenges what doesn’t, and embeds continuous improvement across our practice.
Changing frontline practice is just the start!C.A.R.E. is also about informing and shaping smarter policy and influencing fairer laws and legislation that protect young people - so they are safe to focus on leading healthy productive lives and livelihoods.
C.A.R.E. harnesses our unrelenting commitment to ‘evidence with impact’ capturing insight from the street, testing it in practice, and translating it into smarter and more robust interventions that change lives and keep young people safe by informing and improving the following:
Knowledge & Insight
Knowledge of the ever-changing experiences of harms young people face by building comprehensive understanding, and how best to respond with what truly unlocks change.
Sustaining Impact
Strengthening outcomes and impacts by ensuring lasting progress for young people, and recognition and resourcing for organisations who measure and can prove what they deliver.
Gold Standard
Raising the standard of frontline practice – by transforming training, delivery and support for practitioners e.g. leadership capability, behavioural disciplines, professional conduct.
Continual Advancement
Sharpening and evolving our intervention model by continuous development of Streets of Growth’s performance management and internal refinement of our model of approach.
Systems Change
Influencing practice, policy, funding and systems change by informing research, decision making, policy development, and wider system change to improve outcomes at scale.
Collaborative Consulting
Enabling collaboration and external consultancy by working alongside ‘intentional partners’ to share learning, shape solutions, and strengthen impact beyond our organisation.
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Moving forward, Streets of Growth’s aim is to influence the wider field of youth-focused interventions by publishing research based on our unique approach to addressing harms outside the home. In the next 18-24 months, C.A.R.E. aims to increase public engagement by publishing in open-access journals, presenting research at conferences, and forming academic partnerships. We aim to position C.A.R.E. as a learning hub for evidence-led practice, combining practitioner and research insights to drive impact in the youth intervention space and to improve safeguarding practices in context.
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Our evidence-led data system is built on real lives and in real time, where we incorporate research approaches and evidence and integrate practitioner expertise, experience, and context. This allows us more flexibility and tailoring of interventions to individual need and starting points. Not only can this lead to more effective outcomes in complex situations and the specific context of the situation, but it also allows for a broader and better-informed interpretation of what constitutes "evidence." For us, our evidence collating is not simply a ‘tick box’ exercise. It's about being transparent, responsible and accountable when nurturing change from the ground up and truly equipping and empowering the young communities we serve.
Learn More -
Streets of Growth was built on the foundations of brave and bold experiential frontline practice and ‘best approach’ global research. For us, it’s not just about learning new methods to simply try and solve problems that are ‘out there’. It’s about how we ourselves learn how to learn more effectively by ‘looking inwards’ at ourselves to identify how we may be unintentionally contributing to and blocking the very creativity with our own bias. And, designing in and executing the corrective actions if we are. Put simply – Continually paying full attention to our own behaviours and the way we think and operate, then adapting accordingly. Easier said than done and why we have created a Culture of Learning & Engagement element into our applied research and evidence-led evaluation to make individual and team learning far more tangible and explicit.
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For all enquiries related to C.A.R.E. please contact Streets of Growth on 020 7515 7356
Bridging Communities
Training Police Through Lived Experience and Proven Practice
Streets of Growth Consultants training new Police Constables and trainee Detectives in our model of approach and ‘lived experience’ neighbourhood insights as part of the Met Police Familiarisation Training.
“Streets of Growth’s Familiarisation talk is probably one of the most impactful talks I've ever listened to.”
– Trainee Officer, Met Police
“Familiarisation Week occurs at Week 12 of a new Police Officer’s career. In the weeks prior, they will have attended Training School (Hendon). The purpose of Familiarisation Week is to orient and ground them in the area where they are going to the Police. Streets of Growth continues to sit proudly amongst these sessions, providing pioneering insight into the most complex of issues. The sessions provide the new Police Officers with an opportunity to learn about policing in a wider context considering trauma, social/economic impact and diversion, whilst prioritising empathy and, where appropriate, enforcement. New Police Officers are surveyed on completion of the week, and my staff always rank in the highest percentile in terms of satisfaction, where our community sessions are routinely commended. For that, we give Streets of Growth our thanks.”
– Sgt Dan Wright, Met Police