We are seeking highly motivated individuals with demonstrated skills and experience in evaluation methods, capability building, design and delivery. If you have relevant evaluation and monitoring experience in the Child and Family sector, this might be the role for you. About us The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS, or 'the Institute') is the Australian Government's key research body in the area of family wellbeing. It is an independent statutory authority established in 1980 under the Family Law Act 1975. It is also home to the Australian Gambling Research Centre (AGRC), established under the Gambling Measure Act 2012 which builds the evidence base on gambling-related harm. The Institute is an agency within the portfolio of the Department of Social Services (DSS). Our mission is to conduct high-quality, impartial research into the wellbeing of Australian families, to inform government policy and promote evidence-based practice in the family services sector. We conduct research, provide independent advice and communicate findings to government policymakers, service providers, researchers and the community about factors affecting family wellbeing. Through our research, we contribute to developing policy and practice to promote the wellbeing of families in Australia. Our team The Child and Family Evidence program at AIFS synthesises and translates evidence for decision-making in service settings about what works for children and families and supports practitioners to build their individual and organisational capability to use evidence in practice and undertake program and service evaluations. The Evidence and Evaluation Support (EES) team leads on a range of evaluation functions within AIFS. These include: Working with Families and Children Activity providers to build their capability to use evidence in their practice Working with child and family services to build evaluation readiness and to design and implement monitoring and evaluation activities Working with other commonwealth or state and territory government agencies to deliver program, system and service evaluations and reviews. Position Requirements Evaluation Officers in the EES team support the planning, implementation, and reporting of evaluation activities for projects and programs, and work with child and family service providers to build evaluation and monitoring capability. These tasks include: - Evaluation capacity building and stakeholder engagement: supporting child and family service providers to use evidence and evaluation in their program delivery and undertaking high-quality research and evaluation projects focusing on a range of issues relevant to child and family wellbeing and/or policy design and delivery. - Program, system and service evaluation: supporting the design, implementation, and management of evaluation frameworks and processes across projects and programs - Knowledge translation tasks including literature searches, synthesising existing research and the writing and preparation of publications, reports, short articles, webinars and other materials. This role requires skills and experience in evaluation methods and evaluation capability building. Subject matter experience in one or more topic areas relevant to AIFS projects (for example child and family services, community development, domestic and family violence, family policy) is also preferred. The key duties of the position include Supporting evaluation projects, including maintaining project records, drafting reports and overseeing updates to website and newsletter content. Contributing to the development of theory of change and program logics, evaluation frameworks, data collection instruments, ethics applications and other monitoring and evaluation materials as needed. Undertaking research data collection and analysis Supporting high quality evaluation reports and other deliverables Contributing to high-quality research synthesises and communicating the findings through the writing and preparation of publications, reports, short articles and other materials. Providing support to child and family services to encourage good evaluation practice and the use of evidence-informed programs and practices. Contributing to the development of tools, resources and other capability building activities to assist sector professionals to build their capability to undertake evaluation and/or develop and implement evidence-informed programs and practices. Building and maintaining productive stakeholder relationships and contributing to other core research and dissemination functions at the Institute. Key to this role is a sound understanding of both the needs of the child and family sector and demonstrated experience in evaluation capability building, design and delivery. Key Selection Criteria Professional expertise Delivering on objectives and achieving results Stakeholder management Communication skills Leadership Values and understanding our organisation For a comprehensive overview of the selection criteria, please see the Position Description for more information.
