A case-study of the Yuwaya Ngarra-li Learning Partnership
Yuwaya Ngarra-li's approach to research and evaluation - developed with PRISM
Since 2018 Prism co founders, May and Jo, have been involved in a range of capacities as learning partners to the Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership between the Dharriwaa Elders Group and the University of New South Wales.
The partnership itself focuses on how a university can support an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation to achieve their Elders’ vision of a “well Walgett” while taking their place in the nation and influencing broader systems.
From 2020-2023, the Yuwaya Ngarra-li initiative contributed to over 460 outcomes for the Aboriginal community, the Walgett community and in influencing more broadly. The initiative contributed to an over 30% reduction in children appearing in the Children’s Court, addressing $233,005 worth of fine debt written or worked off while participating in community and cultural activities and accessing mental health services; 50 drought-proof garden beds in the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service community garden produced fresh fruit and vegetables for people with chronic diseases, developing and installing the ‘Gali’ water kiosk in the DEG shopfront, the only safe source of public drinking water in Walgett, influencing government water policy, contributing to the withdrawal of COVID fines across NSW. These and further outcomes are outlined in the recent Yuwaya Ngarra-li 2020-2023 Evaluation and Learning Report.
As learning partners, we’ve been involved in:
Supporting development of theories of change and strategies for areas of work.
Setting up and evolving regular reflection and planning processes to enable the team to orient their work for greatest impact over time.
Contributing to an embedded and developmental evaluation led by UNSW, including leading on the development and analysis of an embedded outcome harvesting approach to understanding Yuwaya Ngarra-li’s impact and influence over time.
Facilitating deep reflection, sense making and problem solving, particularly at moments where the community is facing a crisis (e.g. flooding, COVID) or the teams are facing significant challenges.
Undertaking applied research and writing relevant policy papers and reports.
The Yuwaya Ngarra-li team have themselves identified these practices as a key contributor to their impact over the past six years. Some of these processes and practices are outlined in Yuwaya Ngarra-li Briefing Paper: Processes to enable community-led, systemic and collaborative change.