Know what your work is worth, and share it for success.
Practical, creative evaluation tools for the practitioners who don’t like evaluation.
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Meet Mel for a chat.
Does the word evaluation make you want to run and hide under a bush? I used to feel the same.
Join me in a free, friendly taster call on Wednesday 8 July, 4pm on Zoom. I will walk through what the course covers, answer your questions, and you can decide in your own time. No pressure, no hard sell.
Register for the free call — 8 July, 4pmCan’t make that time? Email me your questions at info@freerangecreativity.org. I answer every email.
You already know your work has an impact.
You see it every day, in the people you sit with, the places you steward, the changes you witness.
Putting that into words is the hard part. Measuring it, writing it up, proving it to a funder or commissioner who has never set foot in your woods. That is where most of us grind to a halt, and where good work goes undervalued.
Here is the good news. You do not need to become an academic, and you do not need a logical, scientific brain. You need a simple, practical method that fits the kind of practitioner you already are, and the participants you already work with. That is exactly what this course is built to do.
Evaluation that helps you succeed and attract funding.
In two focused sessions you will build a clear, doable plan for measuring your impact, on your own terms, without it taking over your life or boring your participants. Success looks like this:
- Feel confident to begin straight away, with a checklist of exactly what you need and a plan that is ready to put into action.
- Know which methods will work for you and your participants, including creative, participatory approaches you may not have considered.
- Design evaluation your participants actually enjoy, so it feels like part of the work, not a chore bolted on the end.
- Know where to focus your attention and what to measure, so you stop collecting data nobody ever uses.
- Tell better stories about your work, the kind that land with funders, commissioners and referrers immediately.
- Know what to celebrate in your practice, and what to work on, so you keep improving with evidence rather than instinct alone.
- Strengthen every funding bid with real evidence, so your applications are credible, compelling and far harder to turn down.
- Feel clear, not overwhelmed, like a practitioner who finally has a system that works for them.
A small, friendly working group. Everyone gets airtime.
What’s included
- Two live, interactive two-hour sessions on Zoom, with recordings to keep
- Your practitioner evaluation handbook, built from years of real nature-based projects
- Ready-to-use templates you can adapt straight away
- Creative and participatory methods your participants will actually enjoy
- Peer input and group feedback on your own plan, from Mel and the group
- Real examples of successful evaluation from across the nature-based sector
- A week’s breathing space between sessions to absorb the training and try things out
- Your own evaluation plan, ready to begin, by the end of session two
Two live sessions, a handbook to guide you, and yes, by the end you will be ready to start evaluating.
This course is for you if…
- ✓You are a nature-based wellbeing practitioner, forest school leader, outdoor therapist, nature coach, green social prescribing provider, or community greenspace project.
- ✓You are curious about evaluation but unsure where to begin.
- ✓You are tired of struggling to explain your impact in funding applications and reports.
- ✓You are ready to take your practice seriously and have the evidence to back it up.
- ✓You care about the quality of your practice.
- ✓Reading instructions and watching videos just is not enough to really get the hang of it, and you want support to see it through.
Two sessions, one week apart
The gap between the two sessions is deliberate. It gives you time to absorb the first session and arrive at the second ready to make real decisions, so you leave with your own plan in hand.
Session one · Tuesday 22 July, 4–6pm BST
Get to grips with how impact is really measured
We explore what evaluation actually involves and how it happens in practice. You will look at which methods suit your work, why you are collecting evidence in the first place, and what to think through before you build your plan.
Between sessions: using your workbook, choose a starting point and make some notes. Around 30 to 60 minutes, no lengthy homework.
Session two · Tuesday 29 July, 4–6pm BST
Build your plan, the real one, specific to your practice
Design an evaluation plan that fits your participants, your context and your capacity. You will work through the methods best suited to your practice and leave with a checklist of everything you need to begin.
You leave with: your own evaluation plan, ready to put into action, not a list of things to figure out later.
Dr Mel McCree
Mel has spent thirty years both doing and evaluating the kind of work you do, and making the case for why it matters.
She is the founder of Free Range Creativity, a training company for change makers, and is widely recognised for her research on nature-based practice and creative health interventions outdoors. She co-founded Forest School South West, a practitioner-led community of practice, and in 2025 led a £100,000 evaluation of community engagement within a national DEFRA-funded resilience programme. Her work spans outdoor play and learning, coaching, therapeutic woodland practice and large-scale community engagement.
Mel knows the difference between evaluation that gets forgotten and evaluation that genuinely helps you understand, and communicate, the value of your work, specific to nature-based practice. That is the difference this course is built around.
In their words
“Based on Mel’s evaluation consultancy, I know what worked best in my last course, and where I can improve. I now have clear recommendations and a plan for my future training. Plus, we have some wonderful quotes and statistics to add to funding applications, and I can now describe the impact of our work in a sentence. The value of this work is huge.”
Charlie Mitchell, Creating Space For You CIC
Feedback from participants in Mel’s training courses:
“Mel was absolutely lovely. I’d love to have a longer chat with her.”
“Mel was excellent, very approachable.”
“Loved her energy. The anecdotes and the expertise were so obvious.”
“Very engaging, with a fluid, confident delivery style.”
“Lovely, relaxed and friendly delivery.”
“Amazing and so very lovely. Mel guided us through it all.”
Join the July round
🆕 Early booking bonus
Book before 10 July and get a free Impact Lab session
Impact Lab is Mel’s monthly drop-in where you can bring your questions, thoughts and ideas and get live support. Usual value £25, yours free when you book early.
The bonus is applied automatically. After booking you will receive an invitation email with available dates and a 100% discount code to book your session.
per person
Network members £90. Payment plans of £30 a month available.
Members of the Nature and Health Practitioners Network, NISPA, the Forest School Association or Forest School South West qualify for the member rate.
This is the first run of this course, and the price will rise for future rounds.
Evaluation Ready Checklist
Get ready to evaluate with this handy checklist, so you know exactly where to start and what you need. Move from overwhelm to action before the course even begins.
Frequently asked
Do I need a research background to do this?
Not at all. This course is designed for practitioners, not academics. Everything is practical and grounded in real nature-based work. If you have ever wondered how to start measuring your impact without it feeling overwhelming or overly technical, this is exactly where to begin.
I already do some evaluation. Is this still relevant to me?
Yes, especially if your current approach feels patchy, inconsistent or hard to communicate. This course helps you build a framework that is coherent, credible and genuinely useful, whether you are starting from scratch or making sense of what you already do.
Who is this for?
Forest school leaders, outdoor therapists and coaches, green social prescribers and providers, community growing projects, ecological trainers and environmental arts practitioners. In short, anyone running nature-based work with people who wants to understand and demonstrate its value. If you are not sure it is right for you, come to the free taster call or drop Mel an email.
Will this help me with funding applications?
Yes, definitely, and it is one of the real benefits. Clear evidence of your impact makes your bids more credible and compelling, which means more success. The course goes wider than funding too: you will learn how to start evaluating and better understand what works in your practice, valuable whether or not you are currently applying for anything.
What if I cannot make one of the sessions?
Both sessions build on each other, so attending live is strongly recommended. Each one is recorded, so if something comes up you will not miss out entirely. You will get the most from being there in person, taking part in the discussion, and asking Mel and the group your own questions directly.
How much time will this take outside the two sessions?
Between sessions you are invited to complete a guided reflection to develop your plan. That usually takes around 30 to 60 minutes, depending on how much you want to put in. There is no lengthy reading. It simply helps you make the most of session two, so you leave with a plan of your own.
Is this suitable for sole traders as well as organisations?
Absolutely. Whether you are a solo practitioner or part of a team, the framework adapts to your scale and context.
Why is the group size limited?
Keeping numbers small means everyone gets time to share their plan, ask questions and receive real feedback, from Mel and from their peers. It is a working group, not a webinar. Social learning is the most effective kind, and the most fun, and let’s face it, learning about evaluation needs a bit of fun and inspiration.
The dates do not work for me. Will you run this again?
Yes. Further dates are planned for the autumn, along with a self-paced digital version and bespoke bookings for your own group. Email us to register your interest and you will be first to hear when booking opens. Do bear in mind this is the first run, and the price will go up in future.
What is your refund policy?
A full refund up to two weeks before the course, or a credit towards a future date.
How does the payment plan work?
Simple. Choose the payment plan at checkout and £30 is debited automatically each month for three or four months.
What is the Impact Lab?
Impact Lab is Mel’s monthly online drop-in session where you can bring your thoughts, questions and ideas and get live support. It is a relaxed, open space, not a taught session, and you can book individual sessions as a one-off whenever you need them. Usual cost is £25 per session. If you book the course before 10 July, you get your first Impact Lab session free. Email Mel for upcoming dates or to register your interest.
You already do the work. This is where you learn to prove it.
Places are limited so everyone gets real feedback, not just a nod. Next dates: Tuesday 22 and 29 July, 4–6pm BST.
Here’s what you get
- ✓Two live two-hour sessions on Zoom, with recordings
- ✓Your evaluation handbook and ready-to-use templates
- ✓Creative, participatory methods your participants will enjoy
- ✓Group feedback on your own plan from Mel and the group
- ✓Your evaluation plan, ready to begin, by the end of session two
- ✓Free Impact Lab session (worth £25) when you book before 10 July
- ✓Session recordings to keep