Event Review – Lisa McGhee (SIMNA Community Convenor)

On the afternoon of Wednesday 19 March, 31 keen listeners gathered at the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Centre at the University of Technology in Sydney (UTS), for SIMNA NSW’s latest event.

As I handed out name badges and ticked people off the list, they assured me that they had come not for the generous afternoon tea on offer, but to hear about the social impact model and survey tool that UTS has developed in partnership with Surf Life Saving Australia.

Matt Bevan, from SIMNA’s NSW Organising Committee, opened the session. He stressed the need to meet, share and talk about social impact measurement, adding that this is something we can and should be doing. His message was strong that there is no right or wrong way to approach social impact measurement; the best thing you can do is talk to others, share your thoughts and experiences and in doing so learn from others.

Kristy Muir, Director of Research and the Centre for Social Impact and a SIMNA Steering Committee member was next. She introduced the speakers and kept the session to time. The speakers included a combination of academics and practitioners:

• Dr. Melissa Edwards, Senior Lecturer in the Management Discipline Group at the UTS Business School
• Professor Simon Darcy, Member of the Management Discipline Group at the UTS Business School
• Professor Jenny Onyx of the Management Discipline Group at the UTS Business School
• Vanessa Brown, Development Manager at Surf Life Saving Australia.

Collectively, the speakers described the journey that UTS and SLSA had been on to try and measure the social impact of volunteering within Surf Life Saving Australia. They described how a series of opening questions that they confronted:

Question – How efficient is SLSA? How effective are its programs? Can a tool be developed to help measure the ‘other’ benefits that volunteers gain by taking part?

The speakers described the process of gathering the data that was to inform their study. A series of eight in-depth focus groups were held with a variety of SLSA stakeholders (a total of 61 participants). There were two focus groups from each of the four states of Queensland, NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Participants ranged from 18 to 70 years of age and both male and female participants took part. The questions were broad and open ended.

 

What came out of these focus groups was the resounding view from volunteers that SLSA is much more than a sporting organisation; it has a civil service element at its core, namely he saving of lives. Directly or indirectly, this civil service element strongly influences the group’s 20,000 volunteers and explains much of the social impact that is experienced.

The study found that belonging was a predominant theme, in the sense that participants expressed feeling connected to others through their surf activities; a strong social bond develops between volunteers.

Another dominant theme was the development of shared social and citizenship values; amongst individuals and also the wider community. Many saw the opportunity to volunteer as a means of ‘giving back’ to their local community.

What stood out for me was the realisation that in none of this work was reference made to financial capital or trying to put a price on the impact of the work carried out by volunteers. Together, UTS and SLSA have found a way of articulating the social impact of volunteering with SLSA for those individuals that give of their time to do so.

Vanessa Brown, Development Manager at Surf Life Saving Australia, said that she is delighted with the results. On the ground, this study has enabled her to re-consider how SLSA can best engage its members and reduce SLSA’s annual churn rate. It’s a constant challenge, but one that the social impact study has helped her to better understand.

There’s been change at the corporate level too.  SLSA’s mission is now two thirds driven by social impact. What a result!

You can read more on the focus group work and the findings associated with this in the academic paper that accompanied the study: http://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/2576

This event was also captured in the following press release: http://shar.es/Bdtj7