COVID-19 has prompted a setting for organisational change for many companies. In such unpredictable times however, it forced organisations to consider whether this is a time to take risks with change or to play it safe with certainty. This blog explores our positioning on this topic at Beacon Strategies and gives insights into how we believe organisations can evolve during these challenging times.

The aim of Changemakers Spotlight is to develop and share insight that showcases ‘how’ great things happen and profile some of the people leading change across the health and social services sector. In this edition we’d like to introduce Paul Martin - Executive Manager (Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs) at Brisbane North PHN.

Community action plans are akin to road maps for implementing community-led change. They identify what will be done, who will do it and how it will be done. They describe exactly what a community wants to accomplish, how it will do so and the resources needed to be successful. They become a framework for implementing topic specific activities within a community, all of which are community-owned.

We (community development and engagement specialists) focus our efforts day in day out, trying to get people involved in community. We try to get them interested. However how can volunteer resource centres keep spontaneous community volunteers engaged and interested in volunteering when there isn't  the impetus of disaster activation?

Our most vulnerable and disadvantaged Australians experience life in a vastly different way to the least disadvantaged. Right across the life course, starting from life in the womb, disadvantage exists.

The Beacon Strategies team (Rebecca Patterson and Mitchell Stalker) took a brief three day site visit to Cairns (Tuesday 22nd of January - Thursday 24th of January) to formally commence the the development of a suicide prevention community action plan for the region (on behalf of Northern Queensland PHN).

Primary Health Networks (PHN) and Local Health Districts (LHD)/Hospitals and Health Services (HHS) play a key role in identifying mothers and children who need specialised support and referring them onward to evidence based support programs. Strong and’ a timely impetus to buddy up and flesh out what a ‘good’ maternal and child health system could look like.

After the successful commencement of a recent stakeholder engagement and community development contract in partnership with a not-for-profit, we have gained a number of insights into how external resourcing can support the NFP sector to deliver on service delivery contracts. Read on for our thinking on how to strike the optimal balance of direct employment and external resourcing for your NFP.

Social Return on Investment or SROI is an evaluative approach that combines participatory evaluation with aspects of economic analysis. We take a look at what SROI is (and isn’t), how it differs from other evaluation approaches, and some tips on when to consider using it to evaluate your work.