A finalist in the not-for-profit category of the Impact Measurement Awards, UnitingCare Wesley Bowden (UCWB) has been at the forefront of the implementation of the Results Based Accountability (RBA) framework across the community services sector in South Australia.

Historically, UCWB has collected data on the numbers of clients served and service delivered and how well they were serving those clients and delivering those services through client satisfaction surveys. In 2013, staff consulted and agreed on four common core questions that help them understand how well they are doing, enabling organization-wide reporting on these metrics. In March of that year, the process of embedding RBA throughout the organization was strengthened by the recruitment of a dedicated RBA project officer.

The implementation of the RBA approach to measuring outcomes by determining if anyone is better off has continued on a program-by-program basis with different outcome measures being developed for each program based on the individual focus of each program. In the last year, measuring outcomes has been extended to five of UCWB’s programs and is a part of new proposals going forward.

UCWB also supports the larger not‐for profit‐sector through an RBA “Community of Practice.” As one of only a few organizations to pilot RBA during the 2011‐12 financial year, UCWB took the initiative to convene a meeting of those organizations interested in advancing their understanding of and application of RBA. From this followed a series of meetings and then the launch of a Community of Practice, facilitated by Community Centres SA.

The community provides support for organizations using RBA at a program level to plan, monitor, evaluate and continually improve programs and outcomes for their clients. Meetings are held monthly and provide an open, honest and safe space to discuss practice, as well as share information and support around new applications of RBA.

UCWB is also a founding partner of Together SA, launched in May 2013. This alliance of community organizations and state government representatives is a deliberate move toward “collective impact.” With participants from the nonprofit sector, various levels of government, business community, police and media, Together SA will use RBA as a shared measurement system to work collaboratively to collectively impact issues in the community.