People Connector Capacity Building Report
The Assisting Communities through Direct Connection (ACDC) Project of Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA) had six intended outcomes, one of them being – Building the capacity of People Connectors with respect to the knowledge and skills for effective outreach to people in need. The ACDC Project’s Capacity Building Project collected and reported on information provided by a selection of People Connectors and through a review of existing feedback mechanisms, to determine individual capacity building outcomes obtained through engagement with the ACDC Project.
This report is to be read in conjunction with the ACDC Project Evaluation Report produced by the ACDC Project researchers, the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) at the University of Western Australia.
Information was sought through this Capacity Building Project to compliment and not overlap the work CSI is undertaking for the project. CSI has a responsibility to evaluate how effective the ACDC Project was in meeting its intended outcomes, including how well the final ACDC Project Kit (including education and training) met the learning outcomes for People Connectors, and the effectiveness and utilisation of the ACDC Project information products.
Benefits and Outcomes
The Benefits and Outcomes were identified as:
• The Project informs of the capacity building journey of People Connectors and how it has impacted on them and their communities.
• Identification of the strengthening within the different cultural groups, while informing future implementation and innovation in the ways of building capacity.
• People Connectors’ individual capacity building and empowerment informed their vision of how to deal with the issues in disseminating information effectively.
• Identification of barriers and how they were overcome.
• The personal stories of People Connectors that have worked in culturally and linguistically diverse communities reveals how this has enabled them to increase their capacity to access and disseminate information within their communities.
• Provides an opportunity for the creation of a platform to share the empowerment and strategies of People Connectors within the sector and allow for their voice and knowledge to be at the forefront. This displays the innovativeness of the ACDC Project, placing CMHA as an expert with the enabling of community members to receive information.
The Capacity Building Project captures the individual capacity building of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People Connectors which will be invaluable to the ACDC Project and CMHA. However, the project is not specifically focused on Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People Connectors but is inclusive of their voice.
“I loved being a part of the ACDC project. I feel it has a lot of potential to do some great things for our local community in the future. I also loved listening to householder’s stories and connecting householders with services.” People Connector in Exit Survey
