aes19 International Evaluation Conference

Amy Bestman (Health Equity Research & Development Unit (HERDU), Sydney Local Health District), Jane Lloyd (Health Equity Research & Development Unit (HERDU),  Sydney Local Health District), David Lilley (Health Equity Research & Development Unit (HERDU), Sydney Local Health District), Barbara Hawkshaw (Central and Eastern Primary Health Network)

This presentation wrestles with the balance between ensuring a robust community-led, inter-sectoral, public health program in a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) location and how to effectively provide sufficient monitoring, evaluation, reflection and improvement opportunities while the intervention is in situ.

Can Get Health in Canterbury (CGHiC) is a unique inter-sectoral program with three key partners (the University of New South Wales, Sydney Local Health District and Central Eastern Primary Health Network) and many local partnerships with community organisations. It was established in 2013 to address high health needs among CALD population groups within Canterbury, NSW.
CGHiC's partnership with the community is supported by the employment of community networkers and the establishment of collective control projects. Bengali and Arabic networkers link the community with the health system, and also provide insight to the health system on the unique needs of the community. The collective control projects enable the community to have greater power over decision making, priority setting and allocation of resources. These projects aim to improve capacity of both community groups and the health system and encourage bi-directional learning and reflection.

Two external evaluations have previously been conducted which provide a point in time reflection on the impact of the project. Now that CGHiC is in its sixth year of operation, we are evaluating the program in-house with the following foci: the external impact of the program; the governance structure, priority setting and decision making of the program; and, the activities of the program. While this process is ongoing, the program team have implemented monitoring tools and processes to measure recent activities. The CGHiC evaluation will contribute to the field of evaluation through the development of novel methodologies, approaches and insights to evaluating complex place-based, multi-sectoral, population-level programs in situ.