Rapid Impact is privileged to work with community organisations that support the most vulnerable people in our community. The challenges are many and complex, from community awareness and acknowledgement to politically-charged funding and investment decisions. Even now, where it is more acceptable to talk about issues such as child abuse and family violence in the wider community, the amount of funding available to deal with the extraordinary number and rise of abuse victims falls well short of basic needs.
In a bid to support the complexity and diversity of their clients, these organisations have many programs and are pulled in many directions. On a daily basis they deal with higher levels of risk where a breach of policy or an error in service delivery can have severe consequences. Not surprisingly, the compliance burdens are great yet the level and capability of resources is rarely sufficient.
Breaking the cycle requires cross-community initiatives and early intervention and so often, one service, no matter how diverse, is unable to bridge the gap. Leaders focused on progress towards sustainable change need to have heroic levels of determination and stamina as well as insight and intuition to find a strategic pathway through these issues.
Examples of Results
Vulnerable children
Every year this organisation assists over 27,000 of the most disadvantaged children, young people and families across our community. They are ambitious, tenacious and relentless in their pursuit of improving the lives of the most vulnerable. There are ideas and plans a plenty for new and expanding services. The challenge was to work with this inspiring team to capture the diversity of ideas, initiatives and plans, set priorities and integrate all into a single point of reference. We helped to create an implementation sequence that was logical, and most importantly, manageable.
Unlocking Sunraysia’s Potential
In this regional city, the whole community was deeply concerned about the future of its youth. Strong community leaders assembled school principals, business owners, government departments, community and youth services to create a plan of action. We worked with over a hundred people to create a shared plan identifying ways of keeping youth involved in the community, recognising early warning signs of at risk youth, as well as re-engaging those who have slipped under the radar. The community came together and made a commitment to act because it was clear no one group could solve the problem; housing, education, health, justice and employment all needed to be able to play their part in broader community-driven initiatives.
Regional amalgamation
A State Government restructure triggered the amalgamation of two service delivery regions. The Department chose to fund a series of half-day workshops, optimistic that the 13 existing providers across the two regions could negotiate and agree a new, integrated service delivery model. In conjunction with a subject matter expert, we created and supported a robust negotiation process that resulted in the organisations agreeing a new governance structure and operating principles. Difficult decisions were made to shift resources within the partnership to better reflect demand, client vulnerability and system improvements. The success of this challenging negotiation within the agreed timeframe averted the need for the Department to engage in a time-consuming and costly tender process.
Royal Commission into Family Violence (Vic)
Many organisations and peak bodies are creating submissions to the Royal Commission in a bid to leverage opportunities for significant change to this high profile and highly disturbing community issue. With little time available, we assisted Melbourne’s six largest service providers reach agreement on the common message and focused call to action to present to the Commission.