[Sub ID 4858] InHAND (Big hART)

Submission ID: 4858
Organisation name: BighART
Contact name: Mr Andrew Viney
State: TAS

Which priority group of the Try, Test and Learn Fund does your idea support?
Young parents

What need or issue are you trying to address?
InHAND

According to DSS statistics, young parents aged 18 and under are most vulnerable to long-term welfare dependency. Of the 4,370 recipients in this group, 57% are from regional, remote or very remote areas (43% from cities).

Big hART has been working in the field with at risk young people from remote areas for 25 years. This experience has shown that in addition to the structural barriers cited by DSS (ie lack of work related capabilities, financial incentives and lack of opportunities), there are 4 key areas that trap young parents in welfare:

• experiencing/witnessing family violence –fear of conflict, lack of resilience in the workplace, avoidance welfare
• shame – body image, bullying, lack of agency, avoidance welfare
• intergenerational models of welfare dependency normalisation of welfare within families, welfare as right of passage
• parental neglect – lack of opportunity, limited capacity, deliberate sabotage welfare

In addition, small to medium NFPs often experience an inherent tension between delivering quality services versus generating quality data as a mechanism of knowledge transfer. In short, their core business is service delivery, not nuanced evaluation. However, accurate service knowledge is the bedrock of advocacy and solid policy development.

What is your idea?
InHAND bundles a new service delivery model with a rigorous evaluation framework in order to test, try and learn an innovative enterprise investment platform that addresses young peoples’ welfare trajectories as young parents:

1. An NFP delivered wrap around service working both within the high school curriculum using arts based methodologies to re-engage young parents in education (under 19s), as well as provide medium term hothousing employment opportunities for 19- 24 year olds based on local industry partnerships. Peer mentoring is critical – single mums (23+ years) would be employed to mentor “younger” single mums (under 19 years) to capitalise on knowledge exchange. The program would embed child care services.

Key partnerships: NFP service provider; high school partner

2. An NFP/ academic co-designed evaluation model capitalising on knowledge garnered from the intimacy of service delivery via participatory evaluation. Collecting and sharing data within projects and across agencies will assist with effective case management, prevent project-churn, and thereby speed up the removal of barriers to employment via the development of:
• a central logic
• a new hand held data collection App for use in the field allowing for real time upload of quantitative and qualitative data
• accuracy measurement frameworks

Key partnerships: NFP service provider; tertiary institution