Case Study
Aban Outdoor
Data-driven insights to measure the impact of structured outdoor adventure.
Aban is an outdoor education charity and social enterprise dedicated to supporting young people in communities facing severe multiple deprivation. We helped Aban create a data system consisting of data recording and organisation-wide dashboarding, to facilitate the publication of their annual impact reports. These highlight how regular outdoor youth clubs and progressive adventures foster healthy development, physical activity, and transferable life skills.
The findings from our impact measurement efforts were most recently presented in Aban’s 2024 impact report.
Track sustainable impact: Build data systems that help to surface evidence about the ways Aban supports teenagers in healthy engagement with life.
Inform "adventurous learning" strategy: Aban uses a pedagogical model based on authenticity, autonomy, uncertainty, and mastery to empower youth who may not engage with mainstream education. Capturing how participants benefit from this helps to improve Aban’s long-term strategy.
Project goals
The project introduced survey tooling and developed a series of impact dashboards to track and quantify the thousands of hours of contact time across Aban’s various charitable activities. We capture two key forms of data:
Quantitative data: Mapping the total number of hours of engagement across various specialised activities, in different natural environments, and involving various forms of kit.
Qualitative, experiential data: Developing surveys to capture social and emotional data pre- and post-intervention.
Approach
Deep engagement: We recorded data from 38 young people across 290 distinct experiences in 2024.
Physical accomplishments: We mapped the collective achievements of you undertaking 2,037km of hiking, 735km of cycling, and 64 nights of camping.
Mastery: 100% of participants felt they improved at a specific skill, boosting their overall self-belief.
Empowerment: 97% of youth reported making decisions without leader assistance, fostering a sense of autonomy and control.
Social cohesion: 90% felt they could be themselves in their group, with 100% trusting the new people they met through the program.
Key results
Aban continues to expand its social enterprise activities, and remains committed to refining its "Adventurous Learning" model to ensure that local teenagers in Inverness can continue to access nature. We continued our partnership working with Aban, to help them quantify impact in a deeper and broader way for 2025 (report published soon).