Collaborative learning and action with the DFV Specialist Support field
How can grant rounds spark collaboration around shared priorities and generate new system-level ideas for action, instead of just funding isolated projects?
A learning community within a grant round
Grant rounds are full of potential for collaboration and systemic learning. They bring multiple initiatives together around a shared priority or area of action. But too often, this is where it ends. Individual projects go forward with independent streams of action, without much opportunity to learn from and with one another, or connect energy and ambition in ways that could lead to change at greater levels of scale. For the DFV sector, this siloed nature represents a lost opportunity in a field that holds so much expertise and experience but often feels disconnected - both from one another and from the policymaking that shapes their work.
In September 2023, Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF) committed a total of $13.6 million in funding to 58 organisations working with key cohorts and communities affected by DFV, and decided to do things differently. PRF engaged ThirdStory (then Innovation Unit Australia New Zealand) and the First Nations-led ResearchCrowd to convene two learning networks of grant recipients, with the aim of building relationships and strengthening connections across the DFV specialist support field. Of the 58 organisations who were awarded a grant, we convened 31 non-First Nations-Led organisations while our colleagues at ResearchCrowd convened a group of 27 First Nations-led organisations.
Voice of the field informing policy and action
We developed and tested a model for collaborative learning with the network of 31 organisations using Bridgespan Group’s Strong Field Framework as the basis. The network was designed to bring grant recipients’ knowledge and expertise together so that we could collectively develop insights, ideas and opportunities for change at ‘field’ level. We wanted to be able to then codify and elevate the voices of the field so that their experiences could inform the decisions of funders and policymakers, while also building connections and relationships between diverse participants that might grow beyond the life of the network.
Emerging from the network are two learning papers: the first paper explores collective insights about how the field is faring and what preliminary ideas participants have for how the system that supports them might be strengthened. The second paper delves deeper to set out the steps required for transformation of the field, the features of powerful DFV practice, and four key actions that participants would like to see happen.
“The people who will know how to solve wicked problems on the ground are the people who are there and working in communities and seeing the issues
present themselves.”
Insights on the grant process itself
The learning network also brought new insights about PRF’s grant process itself and the value that different approaches to funding bring to their work. Participants appreciated the opportunity to focus on deepening and scaling existing programs that are showing promise, rather than having to always ‘invent something new’ in order to be eligible for grants.
Organisations also reported that participation in the network brought new knowledge, new relationships and new value into their work, and that contributing to field learning seemed likely to yield more value than conventional grant reporting
We were struck by the fierce agreement that exists in this network about the key opportunities for strengthening the field’s impact. Ten steps to transformation emerged from the network that have the potential to enhance its support of helpseekers and put the field in a strong position to pursue primary prevention strategies, including to provide flexible funding for relational working, prioritise community-based responses, and to invest in strategic learning opportunities. You can read more about these steps in Learning Paper 2, Growing stronger systems of support: Recommendations from the field of Domestic and Family Violence Specialist Support.
There are many barriers to collaboration across localities and service systems, and few incentives. At the same time, most of the ideas that excite network participants involve time to connect more deeply with others working on shared challenges. They want to grow their capacity to work with communities and across organisational boundaries. They want to strengthen the great work they already do by joining up with others who are focussed on the same goal of violence prevention. And they want to learn what’s working, and adapt promising practices in partnership with cohorts and communities so that they work for different people and places.
We hope that funders and governments, and others with convening power, continue to explore models for collective learning, collaboration and action in DFV and other areas of urgent public need.
If you’d like to talk to us about how we convene networks for collective learning, or explore how we might put the DFV learning network’s ideas into action, please get in touch with Perrie Ballentyne at perrie.ballantyne@thirdstory.org.
Project team
Perrie Ballantyne Director, Collaboration and Systems Change
Emma Scott Senior Project Lead
Tally Daphu Senior Project Lead