Derek Lomas
Designing better tools for assessing wellbeing
well-being is a barrier to learning
Sleep – Can you focus when you’re tired?
Bullying – Can you concentrate when someone has upset you?
Hunger – How much work do you get done when you haven’t eaten?
Confidence – How do you respond to being told “you can’t”?
Positive Relationships – Who are the key mentors and friends who help you succeed?
Belonging – Do you take more risks when you feel like you belong and are cared about?
Why? We want to measure what matters —
Why is measuring useful? In this world, people want data. But if we are showing success only through academic tests, we are missing something important.
Wellbeing is a precursor to learning. Better measures of wellbeing can help large and small organizations understand the needs of the children they are trying to help.
Don’t we already measure well-being? In the field of psychology, there are many great measures of well-being (learn more here). Nevertheless, child well-being is rarely assessed in school or out-of-school time (OST) organizations.
How do you measure well-being? Well-being can’t be measured with a thermometer or scale. Instead, we have to measure the different things we know are associated with well-being. These things include physical health, exercise, nutrition, hydration, trusting adult relationships, supporting peer relationships, calm places to work, and emotional management skills.
Our Goal: We want to make it easier for organizations to use measures of well-being. We have developed a codesign process to work with organizations to measure the wellbeing of the people they serve.