Collaboration between Lumens and Bright Cape launched

Both have only just joined Brainport voor Elkaar, but one is already helping the other with an important issue. Welfare organization Lumens has joined forces with Bright Cape, an expert in data solutions. The goal: to measure the impact of all of Lumens’ services. ‘We are actually gaining an external knowledge department with fifty data experts. That’s a huge opportunity for us.’

On Thursday, March 7, the two parties met for the first time, at the Lumens office on the Beemdstraat in Eindhoven. The meeting was the official kickoff of both the membership of the Brainport Voor Elkaar association and the special cooperation. ‘We want to contribute to the world around us,’ explains Bright Cape project leader Madelon Schellekens, ‘so that also means using our knowledge and skills on a voluntary basis for a beautiful organization like Lumens.’

Bright Cape’s data expertise is more than welcome at Lumens. They report periodically to municipalities about the impact they make with the social assignments they place with them. Think of , youth work, (school) social work and debt assistance. ‘Of course we already measure a lot,’ explains director Jacqueline Vonk. ‘Think of the number of people we help, how often we have seen them, and so on. But those are really only superficial figures, which say nothing about the impact we make.’

That’s why Lumens always tells the stories. Jacqueline: ‘For example, about the depressed boy we helped build a social network, so that he is no longer alone in his room gaming all day. His talent now comes into its own by also helping other lonely young people as enthusiastic volunteer in our e-game community. We want to know: what does our service do to people’s social resilience? That is what it is all about at Lumens.

But how do you measure social resilience? Paul Veendrick, managing director at Bright Cape, has no ready-made answer. ‘Indeed, all the data consultants who work for us find this social issue incredibly interesting . It actually encourages them to challenge themselves by using their knowledge of data in this way. Still, I’m sure we can go from superficial to fact-based numbers. We just work in a structured and step-by-step way, as we always do with our clients.’ In practice, that means initially getting the important definitions clear, such as social resilience. Project leader Madelon Schellekens: ‘We cannot determine that definition, Lumens has to do that. But of course we provide guidance. We know how to make a definition measurable so that we can translate it to data. From now on, the two parties will meet weekly to discuss progress. The next phases are data collection, setting up reports and implementing data-oriented work within Lumens.

Brainport Voor Elkaar program bureau manager Jacline de Kort is only too happy with this first collaboration in the field of social innovation. ‘All the lessons we learn here will be multiplied later. This is a great first example within Brainport Voor Elkaar that shows how technological innovations can strengthen other sectors. But the same applies the other way around: Lumens can inspire Bright Cape to give new content to social employment and entrepreneurship. The cooperation works thus reciprocal.’