Impact Model Framework - Te mana o te rangatahi (Young people are at the heart of this work)

Vodafone New Zealand Foundation – Speaking points for the PNZ Youth Funders Webinar

Vodafone Foundation Background

• The Vodafone New Zealand Foundation (VFNZ) has a vision to see all young people in Aotearoa, New Zealand living lives they value and having access to the resources they need to thrive.

• We know that most young people are doing well but there are a number of young people who are not doing well – they are experiencing barriers to inclusion (exclusion) and disadvantage in terms of economic and social participation.

• We want to ensure our investments as a philanthropic funder are addressing, not worsening key indicators of disparity. Prioritise investments in reducing inequalities.

• To support the Foundation vision VFNZ has developed a strategic goal to halve the number of excluded and disadvantaged young people in Aotearoa New Zealand by 2027.

• To achieve this goal, VFNZ is developing an impact model and framework.

• The Impact Model and Framework is a tool that we hope will be useful as an input for decision making and assist us to track progress in outcomes

Values and Collaborators

• There are several key values that we bring to this work.

• Kaitiakitanga (stewardship of the kaupapa/ protecting & upholding the mana of Young People) – being mindful that we are talking about the reality of disadvantage for young people without being deficit minded.

• Manaakitanga (transparent honest, respectful engagement) – this includes making space for Young People and community organisations working with Young People to shape our understanding and inform our work.

• Rangitiratanga (self determining communities are honoured)

• Underpinning all of this – Te mana o te rangatahi – young people are at the heart of this work.

• Acknowledge partners in this work: Developing the impact model itself requires a lot of expertise and help – early on, we collaborated with the Centre for Social Impact, Deloitte and Nicholson Consulting to do this mahi.

• Each of the partners in this work have key areas of focus but we actually work collaboratively together on the project – as with most collaborations this has not been without its own challenges but overall has been hugely beneficial for the integrity of the work.

Impact Model Journey

• In order to be able to improve the outcomes of youth that have experienced disadvantage, we want to better understand the challenges that young people face in New Zealand as well as what will help them achieve better life outcomes.

• Define the population – who are the young people that we most want to reach – where are they and what are the levers to make a positive difference for them?

• Literature Review –to be published in the next week or two: We sought to identify and prioritise recent literature with relevance to the Aotearoa New Zealand context. Protective and risk factors were identified using a framework that provides a holistic understanding of excluded and disadvantaged young people’s lived experience.

• The framework considered multiple interconnected aspects of a young person’s life experience – including health, safety, education, housing, employment, income, cultural identity, social connections, the environment, civic participation, resilience and leisure and recreation.

• These dimensions align with established frameworks of wellbeing, including the Living Standards Framework and the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy which will drive systems and policies affecting young people in the Aotearoa New Zealand context.

• Established the NZ Youth Accord - an aspirational agreement between diverse organisations and individuals that share the same vision and hold to the same kaupapa. www.nzyouthaccord.org

Data driven tool balanced with community and youth experiences

• Through collaboration with Statistics New Zealand, the Impact Model utilises the IDI (integrated data infrastructure) and other data sources to develop a data driven view of New Zealand young people -their challenges, and their barriers to leading their best life.

• The data used in the model comes from a number of different sources, including the General Social Survey and Te Kupenga, among others.

• Wellbeing is understood with using 12 wellbeing Domains, developed from a review of international literature –with associated measures.

• We are developing an interactive population explorer that will enable organisations to segment this data further: for example, to see outcome data for 16-18 year olds in a certain geographic region with a certain ethnicity.

• Developing a handbook for the Impact Model and framework to explain what it is and how to use it.

• Testing our approach, seeking feedback on the concept and iterating the model as we develop based on feedback – with Community organisations/Young People and key Māori stakeholders and over the next few months we also want to test with other philanthropic funders.

How can the model help other funders in the youth space?

• Initially the impact model was simply meant to be a tool for Vodafone Foundation but as we journeyed along we realised that there could be real value in sharing this freely with other funders. We intend to open source the framework and tool for other funders to use.

• We hope that the model and frame work will:

1. Enable you to identify and understand the group of young people you are focused on – may be in a regional location, or based on the severity of risk factors present, age, ethnicity etc. You’ll be able to see demographic info but also outlook and life experiences

2. Inform the development of a theory of change

3. Measure and track change - Funders can define the outcome they are seeking to influence from the outset, providing a clear steer to community partners about the outcomes they are seeking to fund.

4. Track progress for the group of young people you are interested in over time.

• The Impact Model and framework is a tool that we hope will be useful as an input for decision-making and assist to track progress in outcomes.

Where to from here?

• In the future we hope it will help us identify other collaborators and will enable us to share learning about success and failure.

• We intend to use the NZ Youth Accord as one of the primary mechanisms for sharing information and learnings. Access to the impact model will be through signing up to the Youth Accord in the first instance.

Thanks so much for inviting me to speak and be a part of this webinar.