Aboriginal Family Planning Circle evaluation: Empowering Aboriginal communities in evaluating and future-proofing Aboriginal-led community programmes

The Aboriginal Family Planning Circle (AFPC) programme is an Aboriginal-led community programme, which works with Aboriginal families in Western Sydney to address their complex needs and reduce the risk of having their children put into out-of-home care (OOHC). This article explores two external evaluations undertaken by WESTIR Limited (WESTIR), a non-Aboriginal research service, on the AFPC programme. The purpose of the first evaluation was to provide an assessment of how effective the AFPC programme had been for participants and identify programme aspects that could be improved or developed. The second evaluation was undertaken to examine whether the AFPC programme had continued to meet its objectives and address some knowledge gaps, particularly the estimated savings and return on investment that the programme created for the OOHC system in New South Wales (NSW). The evaluations used qualitative and quantitative techniques, including interviews, focus groups and a return on investment analysis. This article outlines methods, results and recommendations from both evaluations, along with lessons learned to better inform evaluation practice. This case study shows that culturally responsive evaluations can provide an avenue for Aboriginal communities to advocate for the continued funding of their programmes. It also emphasises the need to adequately resource Aboriginal programme evaluations in the community services sector now and in the future.