An Evaluation of AnglicareSA’s role as Facilitating Partner of the Playford Communities for Children initiative

The research evaluated a partnership model for delivering early intervention and prevention programs to families in a metropolitan location experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage. The model is underpinned by a community development orientation and reflects contemporary developments in human service delivery, including networked collaborative approaches, community participation, capacity-building, and a focus on outcomes rather than outputs. The research adds to a growing body of evidence on the key conditions which promote the success of collaborative approaches to community development in areas experiencing complex social issues. The distinctive contribution of the research is that it is a detailed case study of a multi-organisation partnership coordinated by a not-for-profit agency. The research findings demonstrate how not-for-profits can be ideally placed to act as intermediary and facilitative organisations in community development collaborations. The evaluated model is a well-established example of community development collaboration in Australia but its operation has not been reviewed for a decade. Very few qualitative analyses of collaborative community development models have been undertaken in Australia. The focus on a not-for-profit as the facilitative organisation gives the research international significance.