Carinya therapeutic program evaluation
Approaching evaluation with flexibility and a culturally safe, trauma-informed lens
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6423950 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ellie Taylor (0000-0002-4812-1691, The Salvation Army Australia Headquarters), Eliza De Vet (0000-0003-1441-3458, The Salvation Army Australia Headquarters), Helen Xu (0000-0002-8959-5412, The Salvation Army Australia Headquarters), Johana Susanto (The Salvation Army Australia Headquarters), D G T Thomas, Denika Thomas (Awareness for Growth), Sonya Button (The Salvation Army Australia Headquarters), Kylie Froome (Thought Space Clinic), Belinda Hendrickson (The Salvation Army Australia Headquarters) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 82-107 |
| Publication date | 2025-04-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Evaluation Journal of Australasia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1035-719X • E-ISSN: 2515-9372 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719x251336477 |
| OpenAlex | W4409864531 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
How do we go beyond ‘doing no harm’ to consider broader social justice issues in program evaluation? This article explores a transformative and collaborative approach to evaluating a holistic, therapeutic, arts-based pilot program for women and children experiencing family violence. It describes the intricacies of designing and implementing an evaluation approach that respects diversity across (1) trauma experiences of participants, (2) children as victim-survivors in their own right, and (3) culturally and linguistically diverse participants, including Indigenous peoples. The Carinya therapeutic program was developed by The Salvation Army's Carinya Women and Children’s Services, in partnership with Women Illawarra, to support victim-survivors unable to access timely therapeutic interventions due to long waiting periods in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven (NSW). This article details how Carinya staff and social workers collaborated with researchers from The Salvation Army to conduct a trauma-informed, strengths-based evaluation of the program, guided by a Cultural Advisory Group. The group consisted of representatives with lived experience, cultural diversity, and Indigenous backgrounds, involved in the design and implementation of the evaluation methodology. The data indicated improvements in healing, safety, and community connections. The therapeutic program effectively supported the recovery and empowerment of victim-survivors, aligning with existing research on trauma-informed support services
Flexibility (engineering · Lens (geology · Medical physics · Child Abuse and Trauma · Counseling Practices and Supervision · Engineering · Medicine · Psychiatric care and mental health services · Psychology
Trauma‐informed qualitative research
A systematic review of intimate partner violence interventions focused on improving social support and/ mental health outcomes of survivors
Creating a parallel process
Training Informal Supporters to Improve Responses to Victim-Survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse
Family violence risk, migration status and ‘vulnerability’
No one’s discussing the elephant in the room
Towards an ecological understanding of readiness to engage with interventions for children exposed to domestic violence and abuse
Research With Children
Children Living With Domestic Violence
Advancing an ethical imperative for collaborative approaches to evaluation with low incidence and underserved communities
The Ethics of Involving Children Who Have Been Abused in Child Abuse Research
Understanding How Domestic Violence Support Services Promote Survivor Well-being
Therapeutic interventions with women and children in domestic violence shelters
Readiness to Change
Transformative Research Methods to Increase Social Impact for Vulnerable Groups and Cultural Minorities
Decolonizing Methodologies in Qualitative Research
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |