ARTD awarded the 2019 Indigenous Evaluation Award for Excellence
At this year’s international evaluation conference, #aes19SYD, ARTD were honoured to be awarded the 2019 Indigenous Evaluation Award for Excellence.
Our nomination recognised the outstanding work achieved through the pilot of the Aboriginal Evidence Building Partnership (AEBP) by Their Futures Matter (TFM) with Coffs Harbour Aboriginal Community Care Centre Inc (Abcare) and Tirkandi Inaburra Cultural and Development Centre (Tirkandi). Specifically, it recognised the project’s contribution to raising awareness of and skills in monitoring and evaluation, fostering a culture of evidence building and evaluation capacity in the Aboriginal service sector in NSW. Read more about the project, here.
This was incredibly rewarding work, from start to finish. It demonstrated a new way of government working with community – giving Aboriginal organisations the authority to select who they wanted to work with and lead the work agenda.
While governments have often trialed new ways of working with Aboriginal people, families and communities, we know that past policies and programs for Aboriginal people and communities have not often worked, and still, little is known about what does work. This project demonstrated a new and impactful way of working and contributed to Aboriginal community-owned solutions of what works. It fostered a self-determined and genuine partnership between us and our partners, Abcare and Tirkandi.
At the AES Awards Gala Dinner, held at Luna Park on 17 September, ARTD Director of Aboriginal Partnerships and Projects, reflected:
What made it so special was the depth of the partnership we forged as a team. And that we were able to put real substance to what self-determination and empowerment means for Aboriginal people, organisations and communities. We are especially proud that we were able, with these partners, to really work from the heart, with genuine connection and trust and to let our passion and belief drive the design and implementation of the projects. This is work that deepens and enriches and it is a pleasure to turn up to work every day knowing we are working in a way that makes a real change for Aboriginal people and communities.
We’d like to thank our partners at Abcare, Tirkandi, and TFM again for the wonderful AEBP journey we went on together. We believe that passion, respect and a commitment to genuine partnership and self-determination for Aboriginal people and communities underpinned the success of this work, which will contribute to long-term benefits for the services and communities involved and the government sector more broadly.
