Scaling impact measurement with AI - Encoding survey answers for In Safe Hands

We’re the Cologne chapter of CorrelAid, a network of volunteer data enthusiasts using their passion for social good. We team up with non-profit organizations on project-based collaborations – helping them make sense of their data, measure their impact, and tackle real-world challenges.

In our first online meetup of 2026, we continue our journey to learn from existing CorrelAid projects! This time, with a special CorrelAid guest as the speaker ;)

Project Study: Encoding open question answers with AI

In Safe Hands e.V. is an association founded in 2015 with a clear vision: appreciation and equal opportunities for every child! The absolute focus of In Safe Hands is on the program BUNTER BALL, a sports education program aimed at promoting the social and emotional skills of elementary school children.

In order to ensure a meaningful impact, the organization conducts and evaluates participant surveys on a regular basis. The task became more challenging with increasing reach. In 2023, Sören and four other CorrelAid volunteers stepped in and developed a tool which supports the team in two steps:

1. Finding similar statements that have been already coded, enabling a check of consistency of answers for similar items in the questionnaires.

2. Providing automatic coding suggestions, which assigns codes to similar statements.

Finally, if the results of these approaches differ to much or the system's confidence in the encoding is low, a warning is given, ensuring transparency as well as high quality standards of the encoding results. In this meeting, Sören will guide us through the project, its realisation and the important lessons he learned on the way. His presentation will also include a showcase of the Streamlit dashboard which was developed by the CorrelAid volunteers to support In Safe Hands on their mission.

Sören works as a data analyst in the tourist industry. His objective is to help organizations leverage on the potential of data and artificial intelligence. He mainly works with regional and state-level organizations, and helps them improve their data quality on inventories of tours, attractions, and accomodations. His time at CorrelAid started in 2020. In 2023, he completed the In Safe Hands e.V. project as team lead and took over the organization of the yearly CorrelCon conference. In December last year, he was elected as chair of the board of CorrelAid.

The link for this meeting will be published shortly on this Meetup event.

Please note the following:

• This event will be conducted in English.
• This event follows the CorrelAid Code of Conduct.
• There are multiple channels to enroll in this event. As such the number of persons signing up on Meetup does not reflect the eventual number of persons participating.