• Salvos team wins SIMNA award
BY ANTHONY CASTLE
The Salvation Army’s Research and Outcome Measurement Team won the SIMNA* Award for Innovation in Social Impact for their Carinya Therapeutic Program outcome measurement research.
The Carinya Therapeutic Program was developed by The Salvation Army Carinya Women and Children’s Service, in partnership with Women Illawarra. The program was funded to support victim-survivors of family violence who are unable to access timely therapeutic interventions due to extensive waiting periods.
“A massive thank you to our incredible team and our partners in evaluation, the Carinya Women and Children’s Service team, and especially the Cultural Advisory Group,” said Dr Ellie Taylor, Salvos’ Senior Research Analyst, accepting the award.
“Working in the family violence sector is complex enough already. Thank you for walking alongside us and embracing difficult conversations with us while you continue your phenomenal work supporting victim-survivors.”
The Salvos team won the award for flexibility in evaluation with culturally diverse victim-survivors of family violence; going beyond “doing no harm”.
This impact-measurement project aimed to examine the outcomes and benefits of the pilot therapeutic program for women and children accessing family violence services. There are few existing valid and reliable measurement tools suitable for women and child victim-survivors of family violence, and the project necessitated thoughtful experimentation.
“Special thank you also to all the victim-survivors who shared their lived experience with us,” Ellie said. “It has been an honour. Evaluation in the family violence space is so critical, yet so underdeveloped, for several complex reasons. This award gives us even more motivation to keep pushing boundaries and exploring new approaches.”
The evaluation team took a transformative and co-design approach to evaluating the program. The process respected the trauma experience of participants, children who are victim-survivors in their own right, and diverse participants, including Indigenous peoples.
*Social Impact Measurement Network Australia
