Learning from Victoria’s Family Violence Demonstration Projects

CFRE recently attended a forum staged by Victorian service agencies currently delivering family violence demonstration projects. The purpose of this forum was to build collective knowledge from providers of these projects in relation to understanding and supporting recovery. Hundreds of staff and program managers gathered for a day of discussion, reflection, and future service planning. About the Therapeutic Interventions Pilot program The Victorian Government is currently investing in new ways […]

Introducing the EMELP study

How do we Embed Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Practices (EMELP) in Family Violence Service Organisations in Australia? The National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children 2010-2022 is premised on four foundational elements that aim to underpin the necessary change required for organisations to communally address this issue in Australia. These include: strengthening the workforce; integrating systems and sharing information; improving the evidence base; and tracking performance […]

ALL Come Out to Play!

The ALL Come Out to Play! program has been funded under the Victorian Free from Violence strategy. It is part of a suite of primary prevention initiatives delivered in response to growing awareness that gender inequality, including stereotyped constructions of masculinity and femininity, is a key driver of violence against women. Research shows that violence can be prevented: it’s a matter of changing the unequal power relations and cultural norms […]

On-Country Education

CFRE conducted an evaluation of ABC’s On-Country Education program to demonstrate the program’s impact on young people, their families and the community. ABC’s On-Country Education Program is an alternative education model designed to support vulnerable and disadvantaged Aboriginal children and their parents/carers to transition into early learning and primary school. The program provides an experiential and immersive learning approach with on-country activities to achieve improved childhood and/or adolescent development and […]

Emergency Relief Workforce Development Program

CFRE conducted an independent evaluation of the Emergency Relief Workforce Development Program (ERWDP): a nationwide roll-out of in-person and online training. After consultation with the Australian emergency relief (ER) sector, Matrix designed and implemented the ERWDP training courses in addition to self-assessment tools and support for management staff. During the evaluation planning phase, it was expected that new sector-wide operational guidelines would drive the ER reform initiative in 2017. However, in […]

OPEN Data Project

The Centre for Family Research and Evaluation (CFRE) was contracted in 2018 for a data project managed by the Outcome Practice and Evidence Network (OPEN). Based at the Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, OPEN connects practice experience with research and evaluation expertise including facilitating small projects to assist agencies to improve their outcome measurement and use of evidence. In this instance, a Non-Government Organisation based in Victoria […]

Community-level change. Applied resources for Communities for Children Initiatives

Following the success of our work with Communities for Children programs in rural and remote settings, CFRE was contracted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies to develop a guide, primarily for Facilitating Partners within the Communities for Children (CfC) program who would like to further their understanding of community-level change. The guide provides staff with knowledge of behaviour change theory and how it can be applied to program planning […]

Supporting Communities for Children (CfC) programs in rural and remote settings

In 2016-2017 CFRE was contracted by the Department of Social Services (DSS) to increase the capacity of fifteen remote and regional Communities for Children (CfC) service delivery agencies in remote and rural communities to use and generate evidence. CFRE designed and delivered training workshops on program planning and evaluation, with corresponding workbooks and resources for participants. With approximately 105 workshop participants these workshops were a great success! A lot of […]

Outcomes Measurement in Family Dispute Resolution services

With funding from the Department of Social Services and the Attorney General’s Department, CFRE completed work with the Victorian Partnership of Family Relationship Centres (VPFRC). The objectives of this project were to develop and implement an evaluation framework and outcome measurement tool for Family Dispute Resolution (FDR) services, with a view to national roll-out and long-term sector outcome measurement. FDR services are embedded in the complex Family Law service system, […]

Community Connections, Hume Valley School

In 2016-2017, CFRE supported Hume Valley School to evaluate their alternative education program. The Community Connections program is an alternative education program embedded in Hume Valley School in Melbourne that works with students to increase self-confidence and engagement in learning. CFRE worked with staff to evaluate their alternative education program. The evaluation investigated whether the program has been effective at meeting its intended outcomes. The evaluation used a mix of […]

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