Community Engagement and Evaluation Webinar

Community Engagement and Evaluation Webinar

Join us for a one hour webinar hosted by Dr. Kathleen Blair and Hannah Morgan from the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). 

Authentic community engagement can empower people to change their lives and the communities they live in. Community engagement is both a process and an outcome in itself – it leads to better collaborative decision making, centres the needs of the community and it can contribute to healthier and happier communities. 

So how can we capture the impact of community engagement? 

In this session, we will explore the nexus between engagement and impact, and how evaluation can help us tell our story.

Hear from Dr. Kathleen Blair and Hannah Morgan as they unpack how we can evaluate both the process and impact of our community engagement work. 

Agenda:

• What is evaluation and how can it help us tell our story?
• The nexus between evaluation and community engagement
• Getting started: common approaches and tools

Presenters:

Dr. Kathleen Blair is a seasoned evaluator with over a decade of experience designing and managing evaluations across diverse sectors, including government, non-profits, and academia. Specialising in collaborative evaluation frameworks, she excels at embedding evaluation practices and building organisational capacity. As Research and Evaluation Manager at CSJI, UTS, Katie has led numerous social impact evaluations and developed capacity-building programs to support community organisations in participatory research and program planning.

Hannah Morgan is an accredited Social Worker with over 15 years of experience across health, government, community, and NFP sectors. She began her career at Royal North Shore Hospital, providing psycho-social support to patients with acute spinal cord injuries. She then spent 6 years working as a Principal Guardian at the Office of the Public Guardian (NSW), advocating for individuals with disabilities. Hannah has led multiple government-funded projects focusing on disability, culturally diverse communities, and LGBTIQ+ inclusion. At LGBTIQ+ Health Australia, she conducted quantitative and qualitative research on LGBTIQ+ people and palliative care. She has extensive experience in participatory research and codesign with diverse communities.In 2021, Hannah completed a Master of Evaluation at the University of Melbourne with first-class honours. She then worked in program evaluation at the Black Dog Institute, Australia's leading mental health research centre. In 2023, she joined UTS, serving as Acting Evaluation and Research Manager at the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion before returning to her substantive research and evaluation role. Hannah also collaborates with the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Education, conducting research on evaluation (RoE). Her expertise spans social impact, participatory research, and evaluation methodologies, with a strong focus on driving meaningful change.

About the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion

The Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion is the gateway for partners to engage with the university's resources and expertise to maximise social impact. They work with community organisations, not-for-profits, social purpose businesses, and individuals.

This session is run as part of the Carnegie Community Engagement Network offerings. If you work, study, or partner with a member institution of the network you can access this session for free. Please get in touch with your Carnegie representative at your University or email carnegie@engagementaustralia.org.au for more information.

*Please note that this webinar will be recorded.

Contact us

If you have any questions about the session or the Carnegie Community Engagement Network, please contact carnegie@engagementaustralia.org.au