Projects

BRIEF

Small Town Transformations is a $2 million Victorian Government initiative being managed by Regional Arts Victoria. It is designed to strengthen the value of the arts for communities of less than 1500 people in regional and rural Victoria.

NSF Consulting was commissioned to evaluate the initiative over an 18-month period to explore whether it has met its intended objectives and contributed to the transformation of five small towns in Victoria.

APPROACH

NSF Consulting worked closely with the project teams in each of the five towns of Neerim South, Dookie, Natimuk, Avoca and Ouyen to follow the progress of each initiative and to track the impact it is having on the town and its community.

We collected data, conducted in-depth interviews and observations, immersing ourselves in key events and activities and prepared multi-media case studies to profile personal stories. A range of qualitative and quantitative evaluation tools were used over 18 months.

Findings and recommendations were adopted by Regional Arts Victoria in the design and development of the second rollout of the initiative in 2016. NSF Consulting has been commissioned to evaluate the second iteration of this initiative.