aes24 International Evaluation Conference

Authors: Anne Smyth (LDC Group), Lesley Thornton (LDC Group, AU), Kym Coupe (First Step, AU), Caroline Lynch (Launch Housing, AU)

As all Wayfinders would understand, when we embarked on a developmental evaluation of the Road Home, we really had no idea how the program or evaluation would play out in practice. We did know however that the usual way of delivering crisis housing services was not working well for either clients or staff. Something needed to change. We needed to change. So, we did - we being the Road Home team working with the evaluators.

Road Home centres on a strong and engaged multidisciplinary team to deliver mental health, medical, legal and housing services to people in crisis accommodation, where they are, and when they need it the most. This integrated way of working is in stark contrast to the conventional, single discipline outreach and in-reach approaches that characterise service delivery in the community sector - its impact has been significant.

This panel will bring leading representatives of the Road Home team and the evaluators together to explore with our audience what we have learned; what it takes to do this well, the benefits to clients, staff and participating organisations, the pitfalls and challenges and the value of developmental evaluation and its methods.

We now have a much better idea of what Road Home looks like, what it takes to support and enable it, to achieve valued outcomes and to meaningfully evaluate it. The role of evaluators and the project manager in holding the uncertain and evolving space characteristic of developmental evaluation and wayfinding is central - it has taken clarity, alignment of purpose, a lot of patience and much persistence, not to mention flexibility. It has been and remains quite the journey!