Background
A primary focus of the Empowering Communities Program (ECP) is to facilitate grass-roots community development, to empower community members and create stronger and more connected communities. A second aim for ECP is to facilitate social connection between members of the community, in order to increase both community and individual wellbeing ECP also aims to encourage opportunities for collaboration and positive working relationships between community members and organisations involved in delivering services in the community.
About this evaluation
The aim of the evaluation is to understand what impact ECP has had on the people involved in ECP and to gather evidence and learnings to improve ECP in the future. The evaluation is being conducted by the and Evaluation team within the Department of Communities. The evaluation will involve a short survey and some participants will be provided the option to participate in an interview.
If I agree to take part what will I be asked to do?
If you agree to take part in the evaluation a survey will be emailed, posted or sent by SMS to you. You may also be interviewed, either face-to-face, at a mutually agreed location, or by telephone, about your experience with ECP and what impact it has had on you. The interview will take approximately 20 - 30 minutes.
Do I have to take part?
Participation in this evaluation is voluntary and will not impact current or future services in ECP. If you do participate, you are free to withdraw your consent to participate at any time, and for any reason. You also do not have to answer any questions you do not want to.
Will my views be confidential?
The Department of Communities has a commitment to ensure that any information you provide during your participation in either a survey and/or interview for the evaluation remains confidential and that no comments can be traced back to you. To ensure this, the transcripts from any interviews will be coded in a way that is only recognisable to the and Evaluation Team. The responses from the survey will also be anonymous.
With your permission, the interviews may be recorded by the interviewer. This is to allow for the interviews to be easily transcribed. Once the interview has been transcribed and de-identified, the recording will be deleted.
How will the information be used?
The survey results will be analysed and used in the evaluation report and your responses will be anonymous. Your de-identified interview transcript will be analysed alongside other interviews to allow for key themes to be identified. We may also use de-identified quotes from your interview as examples of the themes identified. The key themes and quotes will then be used to write a report for the Department of Communities. The evaluation report will be used by the Department of Communities to identify how the ECP can be improved, as well as seek further funding for ECP.
Contact for the evaluation?
If you have any questions about the evaluation please contact Dr Anne Mathews, Manager of Monitoring and Evaluation via email
anne.mathews@communities.wa.gov.au or mobile 0448 417 090.
