It was a great start to a new year of SIMNA events in WA when over 40 SIMNA members and guests got together on 27 February with Karina Chicote, Manager for Place-based Strategies in WA, at Save the Children Fund Australia.

Karina’s enthusiasm for collective impact was both stimulating and very engaging, as she explained in detail how the Save the Children’s Fund Youth Partnership Project (YPP) is working on a better early intervention system for youth justice.

Designed and implemented in WA by Karina and her small team at Save the Children Fund, YPP aims to answer the question: “How do we get the right support to the right young people at the right time”, with the overall aim being to prevent young people at risk from entering the justice system.

Karina provided an excellent insight into how one WA organisation, is approaching the strategic use of data to handle a complex problem, and how evaluating outcomes can be managed with ‘Development Evaluation’, as a real-time feedback loop.

As the first event organised by the SIMNA WA Organising Committee for 2018, Karina’s presentation was enjoyed by a wide range of members and guests including people from the Department of Communities and the Department of Treasury. Participants gave the event an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5!

This event was live-tweeted – catch-up on the session here!

Guided by the thoughtful participant feedback about this event and others held in 2017, the Organising Committee is determined to make all networking events in 2018, just as relevant and useful for members.

Everyone is looking forward to a great 2018 for SIMNA in WA.