Hope for Health: Monitoring and Evaluation

Ground Up team at the Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, and researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute for Immunity and Infection, University of Melbourne, have been engaged by Hope for Health to help them evaluate the delivery of their retreat for Yolŋu participants in Riyala, Darwin in April 2019.

Hope for Health draws on both Yolŋu and Western understandings of health, knowledge of foods and cooking. The Riyala retreat was the latest in a series of retreats facilitated by Hope for Health. It lasted for 14 days and was attended by a group of 30 Yolŋu participants, including Hope for Health Yolŋu board members and staff.

The purpose of the research was to develop appropriate means for understanding and recording Yolŋu experiences of the retreat, and understandings of what constitutes good health and how it can be maintained. A particular focus of this work is means for supporting lifestyle change, including barriers and hindrances that participants might encounter as they seek to develop new knowledge and health practices. 

Associated with this work was also consideration of how Hope for Health may be evaluated over time, and the development of an evaluation tool able to be mobilised by Steering Committee members to continue evaluating Hope for Health work in Galiwin’ku and at future retreats.