Impact Measurement
What is impact measurement?
Impact measurement is the process that helps us understand how our services are improving the lives of our clients and the communities we work in.
It is the framework Mission Australia has developed to collect, collate and report on outcomes for the clients we assist.
Why do we do it?
Measuring our impact gives us the evidence to maximise client outcomes and improve our programs for existing and future clients. It allows us to record evidence of their journey in a structured, consistent way.
It also helps us to allocate our funding in the most efficient and effective manner.
What do we measure?
We ask our clients questions about their wellbeing at the beginning of their journey with us and over time. This enables us to establish what changes occurred in their overall wellbeing.
We ask each person questions surrounding eight core areas:
Evidence to Action Summary
This summary provides an overview of Mission Australia’s approach to using evidence, insights and learning to ensure we are providing the best possible services we can to the people and communities that we service. It includes our approach, case studies and lessons that we are using to scale and embed the process as part of our business-as-usual approach to service delivery.
Read the full report here.
Impact measurement in action
Going Places - Street to Home in Cairns is a mobile outreach case management service supporting and working with some of the most vulnerable rough sleepers in far north Queensland.
The program assists people experiencing long-term, chronic homelessness to transition into stable, permanent housing, without the client needing to attend a traditional bricks and mortar service.
Many people sleeping rough need help to build trust before they will interact with support services and often, many different services are required. The Going Places - Street to Home case managers working with this client group noticed that many failed to seek or receive the medical care they needed in a timely manner. This often increased comorbidities when assistance was eventually sought.
As a complement to our existing case management support, Mission Australia, funded by the Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works, trialled sending mobile nurses out to care for people experiencing homelessness on the streets. The purpose was to improve the health of those sleeping rough by taking down barriers that prevent them from getting the help they need.
We used impact measurement to ask: Was there an improvement in the client’s view of their own health after receiving mobile nursing care?
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