Achievements of our Inaugural First Nations Research and Evaluation Fellow
We are celebrating the work of Ms Donna Stephens, Community First Development’s inaugural Research and Evaluation Fellow.
The Fellowship was awarded to Ms Stephens, a proud Murran/Iwaidja woman from the Coburg Peninsula, in July 2020. During her time at Community First Development, she has offered valuable insight, training, and innovation in her work across multiple projects. She explored options to best use our historical and emerging impact data, support our action research project and related publications, and facilitate shared learning by yarning with our community development team.
We are delighted to share her incredible achievements with you below!
Story of Change
The Story of Change is the philosophy we work to. When we hold self-determination at the heart of all we do, First Nations’ people lead the way, and their communities thrive. They create more for their youth, stronger economic and education outcomes, safer communities, and stronger, healthier lives.
Ms Stephens was involved in designing our updated Story of Change graphic (featured above). This was an exciting project. She worked closely with multiple team members to yarn about what the Story of Change represents and how we can better represent it visually. After numerous conversations, Ms Stephens suggested that we were describing was an ecosystem where everything is connected. Not one thing is more important than another. When one aspect of community life changes, it impacts other areas. Learn more about the Story of Change here.
Action Research Project on Governance
In 2018, we commenced a Participatory Action Research project to explore the effectiveness of our community development approach in the Australian context. The research explores our partnership model, a collaborative, co-design framework in eleven remote, regional, and urban Aboriginal communities. We aimed to improve our knowledge of engaging with and strengthening First Nations’ Governance, communities, organisations, and businesses.
Ms Stephens joined us in 2020 and played a key role in leading this project. You can learn more about this project here.
2021 AIATSIS Summit
Ms Stephens at the 2021 AIATSIS Summit presenting via Zoom, alongside Doyen Radcliffe and Sharon Babyack.
At the 2021 AIATSIS Summit on Kaurna Country in Adelaide, Ms Stephens joined forces with General Manager of Impact & Strategy, Sharon Babyack, and Regional Manager of the Western Region, Doyen Radcliffe, to share our findings from our Action Research Project.
Presenting via Zoom, Ms Stephens shared some of the research findings from the action research project. The research was undertaken with eleven community partners. We developed new understandings and strategies to navigate the intersecting space of First Nations’ governance practices and Western governance requirements.
The team shared that yarning is the most effective tool for meaningful and deep conversations with First Nations’ people about governance practices.
Presented at Australian Evaluation Society (AES)
Ms Stephens presented alongside colleagues Doyen Radcliffe and Sharon Babyack at the Australian Evaluation Society to discuss Community First Development’s “fail forward” approach to research and evaluation with First Nations’ communities. Building on the final report, they shared their learnings around where things didn’t go as planned, and how they then adapted by taking on board feedback from communities and staff. Some of the key findings and the practices in the research provide insights into creating a culturally safe space in research and evaluation.
Watch their presentation on our YouTube channel here.
Internal Community of Practice
Ms Stephens worked closely with our Impact & Strategy and Community Development teams by engaging in rich conversations about our work in communities.
As part of our commitment to action learning and strengthening outcomes with communities, we established a six-weekly ‘Community of Practice’ involving staff from our Impact and Strategy and Community Development teams. The yarning-based sessions aim to facilitate a learning environment where staff supports each other to undertake high-quality community development, including monitoring and evaluation. The main goal is to improve outcomes for our communities through regular reflection and shared learning.
Our research activities are built into our community development work and are conducted in-house. This ensures our learnings can be quickly acted on and used to strengthen our community development practices. Ms Stephens has left a real legacy to inform our practice and further support our people in communities.
We are looking forward to Ms Stephens upcoming Inaugural Fellow’s oration to share insights into the Fellowship and the research undertaken in July 2022.
We welcome you to learn more about our research here.