ConnectED; support for better quality, access and relevance of education in Central America

ConnectED; support for better quality, access and relevance of education in Central America

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ConnectED; support for better quality, access and relevance of education in Central America

After several years of learning from the achievements of its program in rural areas of Nicaragua, in 2019 the Raechel and Jackie Foundation became ConnectED. At the same time, the organisation embarked on a new phase of work in Guatemala that focuses on further testing and proving of its community-based model implemented with local education leaders known as Fellows.

As part of this process of change, ConnectED invited Community Works to collaborate across a range of activities designed to establish and sustainable and high-impact long-term strategy. Starting with Spring Impact methods to analyse and plan the scaling of the work in Nicaragua to Guatemala, we broadened our work for ConnectED to include:

  • Research on comparative education models
  • Interviews with key individuals on the impact and future directions of ConnectED
  • Preparation of a strategy and business plan
  • Development of key strategy components including the Theory of Change, logic model and M&E metrics
  • Design of communication materials, including a prospectus for potential local partners
  • Preparation of training materials for workshops in Guatemala
  • Contributions to plans for fundraising. 

We worked closely with the ConnectED team throughout this process, building great team spirit and collective effort. 

At the time of preparation of this short summary, Community Works has been involved with ConnectED for over a year and Steve Fisher has joined the Advisory Council of ConnectED. We anticipate continuing our partnership as the organisation delivers against its strategic objectives and makes a difference to the way that communities in Central America achieve better quality, access and relevance of local education.

Support to new project development for the World Psychiatric Association

Support to new project development for the World Psychiatric Association

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World Psychiatric Association

Support to new project development 

Every three years, the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) elects a new President. For the current period, Prof. Helen Herrman is President and so has the responsibility of leadership for the work of the association globally. Community Works has previously worked with Helen through the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, Orygen Youth Health and the programs of BasicNeeds.

Helen was elected for the wealth of experience and knowledge that she brings to the position of President, as well as her diplomatic and leadership qualities. Her plan is to strengthen the capacity of WPA and its membership to engage in international development initiatives that currently do not benefit from strong representation from psychiatrists. In doing so, the organisation will increase its positive impact on mental health globally. This involves promoting mental health and improving equitable access and quality of mental health care.

The Action Plan developed by Helen to guide the work of the organisation during her term provides a targeted strategy for reaching people, particularly young people, who face adversity and disadvantage. The model below summarises the key components of the Action Plan.

Community Works has played a role in bringing the Action Plan to fruition and supporting its implementation. We helped develop and present the major concepts, conducted supporting research and prepared material to attract support for the new projects. Individual objectives of the Action Plan have led to new publications and operational project work including:

  • A literature review on mental health and psychosocial support during conflict and emergencies as a key contribution to a workshop for a range of specialists from Europe, Latin America and the United States, held in Madrid
  • A concept paper on minimising coercion in mental health care, as a basis for a pilot project in this field in which the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and the Melbourne Social Equity Institute is collaborating
  • A discussion paper on strengthening community orientation in mental health, as a contribution to discussions with NGOs and health professionals in Kenya
  • The Clinic to Community publication, which describes ways in which practice transformation might be achieved in the mental health field
  • A discussion paper on effective partnerships with service users and carers, as a contribution to a new phase of work by WPA on this important subject

 

Community Works has supported WPA to plan and implement a range of initiatives. The underlying drive for all this work is the knowledge that the ability of the WPA to promote sustainable change depends on two main factors. The first is its capacity to collaborate successfully with other organisations. The second is its potential to engage psychiatrists in new challenges. We are pleased to contribute to such a progressive and outward-looking program of work.

Rheumatic Heart Disease Community Awareness Project

Rheumatic Heart Disease Community Awareness Project

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Rheumatic Heart Disease Community Awareness Project

The Stronger Communities for Children (SCfC) is a community development program in ten sites in the Northern Territory that focuses on achieving the best possible start in life for children. It supports safe and healthy communities, families and children and it ensures that local people are in control of local decision making on services and activities for their children. The program is supported by the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA).

Community Works has been engaged by Ninti One to support their work on the SCfC program since it commenced five years ago. In this example, the Ninti One SCfC team was invited by Mala’la Health Service Aboriginal Corporation in Maningrida to visit their community to help conduct impact assessments for an important initiatives supported by SCfC, the Rheumatic Heart Disease Awareness Project.

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is damage to one or more heart valves that remains after acute rheumatic fever (ARF), where the heart has become inflamed. According to the Menzies School of Health Research, the incidence of ARF and RHD falls dramatically with improved living conditions and increased hygiene standards, along with better access to appropriate health services and penicillin-based medications.

In Maningrida, many people are working to improve local awareness of ways to prevent the disease. The purpose of our work was to measure what difference this awareness-raising work is making. To achieve that, we used participatory action research methods. We trained five people from Maningrida to conduct surveys and focus groups.

Community Works helped Ninti One publish a storybook on the Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) awareness project. A short video was also produced by Ninti One.

In Maningrida, many people are working to improve local awareness of ways to prevent the disease. The purpose of our work was to measure what difference this awareness-raising work is making.

Documenting and formalising the Uniting GriefWork model

Documenting and formalising the Uniting GriefWork model

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Documenting and formalising the Uniting GriefWork model

Uniting GriefWork is a free service offered to people living in Victoria who have been bereaved by the work-related death of a loved one.

Uniting GriefWork is a free service offered to people living in Victoria who have been bereaved by the work-related death of a loved one. This program has been structured as a companioning service model to support individual grief and was developed by the Creative Ministries Network (CMN), a charitable Uniting agency.

Based on previous work that Community Works had successfully conducted for another Uniting agency, CMN approached us with the aim of documenting the Program Design of their service. Ruth Lancaster was the person in charge of managing this work as part of the Community Works team.

To begin, Ruth conducted qualitative research by engaging current and past clients, and other key stakeholders, in a number of interviews to listen to their experience in relation to the service and the impact of work-place death on their lives. She also had constant interaction with Uniting GriefWork staff and directors to identify the key customer values, policies and procedures, as well as other insights into the program.

 

Besides these interactions, Ruth studied GriefWork’s documentation, conducted a literature review and analysed current theories with regard to traumatic grief as well as assessed other similar companioning models researched by Carolina Bermudez, another Community Works’ team member. Ingrid Horton produced a range of graphics to enable the report to communicate complex analyses in a visual way.
With all of this in mind Ruth developed a program design that included the program objectives, program logic, theory of change, operations, outcomes and recommendations, as well as research-based analysis about grief and other companioning models.

The analysis and formalisation of the model has been a significant contribution to Uniting, providing rigour to their programme. Having a document that contains the fundamental elements of the service and demonstrates how it operates, will allow Uniting to orient and strengthen their practice, as well as share the core details of their service with external stakeholders and organisations that are interested.

Improving Organisational Effectiveness

Improving Organisational Effectiveness

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Improving Organisational Effectiveness

Improving Organisational Effectiveness

 

Community Works offers training workshops on project design and planning, project management, monitoring and impact assessment. We are sometimes asked by participants to provide additional sessions, popular choices being strategic planning, fundraising and scaling up.

A program that received particularly good feedback from participants was on organisational effectiveness and was held with NGO managers from four countries in Latin America. The work was managed by the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and funded by AusAID through its Australian Leadership Award Fellowships.

The challenges of scaling-up successful programs arose through discussion with participants. Many participants considered that effective advocacy to government was arguably the best way to achieving wider positive impact, without necessarily requiring an expansion of their own programs. Steve Fisher has co-authored a paper for Ninti One on replicating effective projects, which is available from the Community Works website.