Reading Force – xternal Evaluator Opportunity: Northern Ireland Project

Summary: We are looking for an external evaluator based in NI for our 3-year project.

Project duration: 3 years (2026 – 2029)

Location: Northern Ireland

Budget: up to £3,750 for delivery of the specified outputs

Outputs: delivery of annual reports, final report, and recommendations

About Reading Force and the Northern Ireland Project

The charity Reading Force www.readingforce.org.uk is proud to announce that it has been awarded funding from NI National Lottery to continue to offer support to military and veteran families in Northern Ireland. The new award builds on the work the charity has both carried out and evaluated in the province over the past four years.

Reading Force works through encouraging shared-reading, distributing relevant resources to military personnel and their families, and encouraging them to use books and shared-reading to connect and keep in contact, particularly when life feels uncertain. Delivery to the military community over the past 15 years has shown this to be a simple and yet profoundly effective way of promoting resilience, wellbeing and positive mental health, reducing isolation, promoting individual confidence, and developing both family and community connectivity.

Requirements of the brief

For the effective delivery of this 3-year grant, we seek an external evaluator to review and strengthen our approach to evaluation, support the identification and evidencing of outcomes, and contribute to evaluating case studies from the project. This would involve:

• Consulting with the Project Director and relevant stakeholders as appropriate to inform the development of the evaluation framework
• Analysing qualitative and quantitative data
• Providing insight, learning, and recommendations
• Producing annual and end-of-project evaluation reports

Who this opportunity may suit:

• A freelance research/evaluator
• An academic
• A research organisation

Areas of Interest:

• Wellbeing
• The impact of reading
• Armed Forces Community

Why you might like to consider involvement:

• This project offers the opportunity for involvement in community-based evaluation; practice in action.
• This is valuable for organisational metrics that seek to establish a professional or academic contribution to society, for example for REF or other social impact measuring processes.
• Reading Force has been shown to be effective in NI and delivers a meaningful contribution. Those involved in our steering committee, and individuals who have applied for roles with us in delivery, tell us they find involvement meaningful and motivating.

Terms

Contract type: contract-for-services.

Expected start date: August/September 2026

End date: July 2029

Indicative level of effort: approximately 75 hours across the project lifecycle.

Payment schedule:  to be agreed, linked to delivery of key outputs (e.g. framework design, annual reports, final report).

Timescales

How to apply

If you would like to be considered for this brief, please email the founder and director Professor Alison Baverstock, alison@readingforce.org.uk with a CV and a letter of introduction, saying why you would like to be involved and offering a brief proposal – to be discussed in more detail at interview. Please submit your tender by Friday 3^rd July 2026.

Reading Force | Registered Charity No. 1159890 (England and Wales)