Your 2022 SIMNA Awards Finalists
We are thrilled to be able to introduce to you the 2022 SIMNA Awards Finalists! As in year’s past, each initiative across each of the four categories undergoes rigorous scrutiny throughout the two rounds of judging to ensure a fair and balanced outcome. A big thank you to our esteemed non partisan Judging Panel for volunteering their time and expertise in the field of social impact measurement during round one of the judging process to choose our Finalists!
The SIMNA Awards celebrate the work of Australia’s social impact measurement trailblazers, innovators, best collaborators and most effective funders. The Awards shine a light on the leaders in the Australian social impact measurement ecosystem and recognise those organisations and initiatives achieving the best possible outcomes for all Australians, our communities and our environment.
Social Impact Measurement Network Australia, SIMNA
We invited all Australian for-purpose organisations of all sizes and types to apply – not-for-profit, social enterprises, funders, B Corps, corporates and government agencies and we received an incredible amount of high calibre applications. As in year’s past, there were four SIMNA Award categories to choose from and in a slight break from tradition, each initiative could only choose from one category.
Click through each of the following four categories to read all about your 2022 Finalists! Winners will be announced at an online awards ceremony on Tuesday, 6 December 2021. Thanks to the generosity of our funders, you can get your free tickets here.
2022 SIMNA Awards Categories
Deloitte Access Economics | Youth Work Matters – Social return on investment study
Young people in Victoria face critical issues such as insecure employment, declining mental health and wellbeing, disruption to education, and homelessness. In light of these circumstances, Youth Affairs Council Victoria (YACVic), the peak body and leading policy advocate for young people and the Victorian youth sector, commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to conduct this social and economic return on investment (SROI) study in order to enhance the evidence base that can inform future policy changes.
Edith Cowan University | South West Food Community
The South West Food Community (SWFC) pilot project commenced in June 2018, in South West Western Australia (WA). ECU adapted Wicked Lab’s six-stage Systemic Innovation Lab approach which asserts that complex issues such as food security are better addressed using a place-based focus and when government and community work collaboratively together.
Launch Housing | Launch Housing’s Integrated Impact Measurement Framework
Over the past two years Launch Housing has developed an Integrated Impact Measurement Framework to measure and report on progress against our mission to end homelessness. The framework includes our Strategy 2020-24 and Theory of Change (ToC), an Outcomes Framework, an annual Impact Report aligned to ten consistent impact measures, and a three-year business plan which identifies program evaluations and service reviews.
The Salvation Army | The Salvation Army Doorways Emergency Relief Outcomes Measurement
Doorways Emergency Relief (ER) service is an important element of The Salvation Army’s mission and vision. ER workers provide financial and material assistance to people across Australia experiencing hardship and financial distress.
Centre for Social Impact, UNSW | Amplify Online
Amplify Online by the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) is a world-first technological solution to the inaccessibility of outcome evaluation in the not-for-profit sector. Amplify Online reduces the uncertainty experienced by community organisations around what and how to evaluate by providing automated, tailored recommendations that guide users to select, collect and report on measures of impact.
Global Sisters | #BackHerBrilliance: Global Sisters gender-lens impact roadmap
Global Sisters exists to make business possible for women, helping them to own their economic future. Their globally unique model combines direct impact work to “beat the odds” and advocacy to “change the odds” for women. Direct impact enables women to participate economically and be self-employed via micro business. Systems change work tackles women’s economic security and address some of the most significant issues facing women today: old age homelessness, poverty, domestic violence and mental/ physical health. Impact innovations include the integration of direct impact and macro impact/ systems change domains in their Impact Roadmap (Theory of Change). Their approach is intentionally pro-women and gendered to increase accessibility, data autonomy and accountability – and challenge the idea that robustness and rigour only come through traditional, academic approaches. These innovations are resulting in powerful impact data and story-telling evidence base to create systems change for a more equitable, inclusive society for us all. #BackHerBrilliance
headspace | Early Career program developmental evaluation framework
In 2021, headspace secured Australian Government funding to establish the “Early Career program” – placing students and graduates in the disciplines of occupational therapy, psychology, and social work in headspace Centres. The program is in the pilot stage (active in Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania; with the aim to scale nationally) and involved the design and implementation of an adaptive developmental evaluation system. This framework feeds rapid short and long learning loops (via insights from all stakeholders) back into programming to drive continuous improvement.
Redkite | Redkite Forecast Social Return on Investment Analysis: 2022-2026
For almost 40 years, Redkite has provided essential psychosocial support to children and families affected by childhood cancer. The ongoing measurement of outcomes for these families is critically important for Redkite in driving continuous service improvements and demonstrating social impact. The SROI analysis, developed in collaboration with SVA Consulting, intends to quantify the social and economic value that could be created by all Redkite’s services if they were to achieve intended outcomes over the next five years (2022-2026).
Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO) | Culture + Kinship
Reconnecting First Nations people to Culture, Country and Community has been associated with improvements in educational outcomes, increases in employment levels and reductions in specific risk-taking behaviours. VACCHO has piloted the Healthy Communities program. Overall, the aim of Healthy Communities is to continue developing the body of evidence that Culture, Country and Community play a significant role in improving health and wellbeing outcomes for First Nations people in Victoria.
Clear Horizon & Hands Up Mallee | Measuring change together: co-design and implementation of Hands Up Mallee’s joint Measurement, Evaluation and Learning Framework
Hands Up Mallee is a place-based collective impact initiative established in 2015 that brings local leaders, community and organisations together to address complex social issues and achieve positive health and wellbeing outcomes for children, young people, and their families in Mildura. Clear Horizon led the co-design process of the Hands Up Mallee Measurement Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Framework including the Nested MEL components for the work focused on 0-8 and 9-18-year-olds and their families.
For-Purpose Evaluations | MYAN NSW Youth Ambassador Program Social Impact Assessment
The MYAN NSW Youth Ambassador Program (YAP), running since 2016, aims to create a culturally safe space for young people from diverse cultural communities to develop a sense of belonging and to build skills, knowledge, networks and confidence so they become empowered and influential active citizens in Australia, participating fully in their own right and on their own terms.
Tina River Hydro Development Project | Tina River Hydro Development Project Mid Term Review of the Community Benefits Sharing Pilot Program
The Tina River Hydropower Project (TRHP) aims to increase the share of renewable energy in the Solomon Islands by constructing a 15-megawatt hydro power plant that will increase the amount of renewable energy in the Honiara national grid. It is the first Public Private Partnership in the Solomon Islands used to deliver a major infrastructure project.
Equity Trustees | Equity Trustees – Empowering Change
In 2018, Think Impact held the first workshop with the Social Impact team to commence their impact management journey. They developed a Blueprint (framework) to serve as a tool that informs their giving and enables them to articulate externally their approach to funding. Over the last five years they have matured in their understanding of impact management, and have developed impact narratives, a reporting framework (continual evolution) and underlying grant making principles.
Urbis (on behalf of Family Safety Victoria) | Capacity building in the family violence system
Family Safety Victoria provides grants to Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) under the Community Initiative Fund (CIF) and the Preventing the Cycle of Violence (PCV). These grants support projects aiming to prevent family violence. FSV invested in a capacity building project that sought to strengthen social impact measurement and evaluation capability within funded organisations. FSV engaged Urbis in partnership with Yorta Yorta woman Karen Milward and Cox Inall Ridgeway (a majority Aboriginal-owned social change agency) to provide extensive support to a network of 30 funded entities.
2022 SIMNA Awards Ceremony
Join us at the virtual 2022 SIMNA Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, 6 December from 3pm AEDT. With pitches from our finalists and a discussion panel with national impact makers, funders, philanthropists and policy makers, this unique digital networking opportunity is not to be missed! To read more about the awards and ceremony and to secure your free ticket, click here.
The SIMNA Awards are run annually by the Social Impact Measurement Network of Australia (SIMNA). The SIMNA Awards would not be possible without the support of our Platinum Sponsor Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and our Category Sponsors SVA Consulting, Urbis and Smarty Grants. Thank you for joining us in making the 2022 SIMNA Awards happen!
