#25.3 AES26 Making Space, Valuing Place: Day 3 - A Genuine Time, and a Great Debate.

Day 2 of the AES26 Evaluation Conference on beautiful Larrakia Country in Darwin has come to a close - but the festivities are only just beginning. The end of Day 2 formalities means that delegates are now getting ready for the Gala Dinner! Matt brings you a few reflections on the day, and a whole lot more thoughts from delegates on what they heard from Day 2, or what they're still thinking about from Day 1. Other news from Day 1 was that Iris Ethics have launched a world first Knowledge Base - so if the interface between ethics and ethical review processes and evaluation practice are something you're grappling with Gerard and the team have you covered. And it's free! Matt also ran a session on scaling in the context of place, and a new tool to be added to the open-source Scaling Field Guide on the FPC website. And finally, Stephanie and Sophie from ARTD ran a session on monitoring on a shoestring, and the use of nifty tools to help automate / streamline the process of producing reports. And they've got resources to share! No coding knowledge required - check it out!

Day 1 of the AES26 Evaluation Conference on beautiful Larrakia Country in Darwin is done! Matt brings you some delegates initial thoughts, and a bit of a download and debrief from what he heard. More to come over the next two days, so make sure you've hit the 'follow' button on your preferred platform.

In this episode, Matt speaks with Dr Stephanie Godrich — Senior Lecturer in Nutrition at Edith Cowan University, Registered Public Health Nutritionist, and the driving force behind the Food Community program of work in Western Australia. From delivering cooking and nutrition programs across the state to establishing Foodbank WA's regional strategy spanning 2.5 million square kilometres, Stephanie's career has been shaped by one recurring lesson: how people get food for their families depends entirely on where they live. The conversation unpacks what food systems actually are — the interconnected web of production, distribution, consumption and waste that shapes our health, economies and communities — and why so many organisations and government departments are doing food systems work without realising it. Stephanie grounds it all in two Western Australian examples: the Food Community work, which has mapped, evaluated and strengthened 170 food security initiatives across every region of the state, and WA's first food action groups, now funded in the Wheatbelt and Central Great Southern and delivering exactly what communities asked for. Her advice for anyone doing this work? Get listening. Get curious. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. If you like this episode, then make sure to check out #7 Rethinking Systems Evaluation with Emily Gates for more on systems thinking in practice. Resources mentioned:

In this episode, Matt speaks with Tanya Rong — Chair of the Latrobe Health Assembly, Australia's first community-led health assembly, set up in the wake of the 2014 Hazelwood mine fire to give the Latrobe Valley community a genuine voice in the decisions that shape its health and wellbeing. A former intensive care nurse with a background in health promotion, Tanya is now completing a PhD at Monash University on place-based approaches to health — and she has been part of the Assembly from its earliest days, as a volunteer, board member and chair. A simple conviction sits at the heart of the conversation: place-based work thrives on trust. Rather than dropping cookie-cutter programs into a community, genuine place-based practice starts by honouring local knowledge and getting the "preparation" right — building relationships and laying the groundwork long before anything is delivered. If you like this episode, then make sure to check out #13 Governance, Not Geography: Redefining What Place-Based Work Really Means with Luke Craven for more on this topic. Resources mentioned:

In this episode, Matt speaks with Michael Hogan — Executive Convenor of the Queensland Kids Partnership, an initiative hosted by ARACY that brings together philanthropy, government, community and research to improve the wellbeing of Queensland's children and young people. Michael has more than 35 years' experience in public-purpose work, including roles as Director-General of two Queensland departments. A deliberate choice sits at the heart of the partnership: rather than create another organisation or service, it set out to use what's already there — convening, catalysng and connecting the people and programs already doing the work, and drawing on ARACY's national networks instead of adding to a crowded ecosystem. We talk about what makes work genuinely systems-focused, how the partnership organises its work around six portfolios and the idea of "lead, facilitate, affiliate", and why so much of the most important work — relationships, partnerships, weaving networks together — stays invisible and undervalued by funders. Michael also unpacks the role of philanthropy as active partners rather than passive funders, and why shifting outcomes for kids means following the money and changing how investment is done. His message is clear: we've spent too long prioritising competitive advantage and not enough valuing collaborative advantage — and systems are built by everybody, over generations. In this episode we cover: