ACTION RESEARCH & EVALUATION
Evaluation of the Local Council Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Toolkit
June 2019
The Department of Social Services is funding the development of the Local Council Domestic and Family Violence Toolkit. The toolkit provides resources for councils to undertake DFV prevention activities within their organisations and in their communities. The toolkit is being trialled in sites across Australia before its national launch, and ANROWS’s role is to evaluate those trials.
The evaluation ran from April 2018 until June 2019 and is using an action research approach with five local councils across Australia:
- City of Charles Sturt, South Australia
- Latrobe City Council, Victoria
- Mackay Regional Council, Queensland
- City of Mandurah, Western Australia
- City of Parramatta Council, New South Wales.
The evaluation identified any necessary amendments and documented case studies for inclusion in the final product.
Project summary
The toolkit will provide evidence-based resources, tools and templates to enable, empower, and encourage local councils to begin to take action, and sustain this action to reduce DFV. For example:
- Gaining buy-in from elected councillors and management
- Establishing an internal working group
- Undertaking a gender audit of councils’ policies and procedures
- Identifying key internal and external stakeholders
- Partnering with community organisations to provide training and awareness-raising workshops.
ANROWS provided support to each of the five trial sites to incorporate action research processes into their monitoring and evaluation work. The trial sites planned and implemented activities and collected data on the activities’ effectiveness and impact. They then used the data to reflect on how the activities can be improved in the future. This approach helps build the capacity of local governments to undertake basic research and incorporate evaluation processes into their work.
ANROWS was contracted to provide the following to the trial sites:
- Support an action research approach to evaluation.
- Develop a feedback mechanism to support the ongoing review and refinement of the toolkit during the trial phase.
- Establish and support a Community of Practice (CoP) between the sites to facilitate information sharing and collaboration.
- Develop an appropriate monitoring and evaluation framework in consultation with the sites to support reporting on progress and short-term outcomes.
Downloads
INSIGHTS
Preventing domestic and family violence: Action research reports from five Australian local government councils
ANROWS Insights 06/2019
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Contact ANROWS
PO Box Q389, Queen Victoria Building NSW 1230
Email: [email protected]
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