Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT) is representing NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations in its work with the NSW Government to develop the NSW Aboriginal Justice Partnership. In the long term, the partnership is meant to be a strong relationship between the NSW Government and Aboriginal communities, with justice at its centre, with decision-making and service delivery at local and regional levels.
Yulang was commissioned to evaluate this important program, along with two associated projects – the Therapeutic Pathways for Children Proeject and the Aboriginal Throughcare Strategy Project.
We designed evaluation questions to understand the Aboriginal Justice Partnership’s work on its objectives and deliverables. These led to a mixed-methods evaluation, gathering seven types of data:
- document analysis, including about Closing the Gap commitments
- consultation, including meetings with ALS, Department of Communities and Justice (representing the NSW Government) and the two parties together
- interviews with stakeholders involved in the partnership – 15 in-depth discussions
- interviews with key informants experienced in policy partnerships and system change – 15 in-depth discussions
- case studies about aspects of the partnership in operation – four diverse stories
- economic analysis of achieving targets
- landscape analysis of societal factors influencing the partnership’s work.
This array of data provided multiple perspectives to use in the evaluation. We brought all of this data together – triangulated – to understand the extent to which the Aboriginal Justice Partnership Project met its objectives and reflected an Aboriginal cultural lens.
Our findings and recommendations are high level, and rooted in an understanding of the priority reforms in the Closing the Gap national agreement. They focus on the work involved in establishing a partnership, how to ensure that what you have is actually a partnership, and not simply a contractual relationship. and how to ensure Aboriginal cultural protocols are centred.
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