DEG always works to understand its progress, and the outcomes our work produces. This Evaluation and Learning Report 2020-2023
was prepared by the Yuwaya Ngarra-li Research and Evaluation team at UNSW. It summarises the outcomes of Yuwaya Ngarra-li projects led by the Dharriwaa Elders Group and funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation from 2020-2023 that focused on improving:
- Youth Justice and Wellbeing
- Water and Country
- Aboriginal Community Capabilities and Control
- Housing
- Fine Debt
The report draws on different sources of data including community surveys, interviews, government administrative data, program logs and notes from team reflections. It documents evidence of outcomes for Aboriginal community members (e.g. supporting people to deal with more than $230,000 worth of fine debt), for the broader Walgett community (e.g. developing and installing the Gali water kiosk in the DEG shopfront which is providing the only safe source of public drinking water in Walgett), and at a systemic level (e.g. influencing the way the NSW Government is working with Aboriginal communities to access administrative data). The report also summarises what has been learnt about working in a community-led way, and how other universities and communities may learn from this work.