Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Guest Writers

Making a difference backed up by research

byGuest Contributor
24 February 2017
Reading Time: 2 mins read
AA

Insights: Dr Christopher Ambrey and Vinnies Queensland chief executive officer Peter Maher.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Insights: Dr Christopher Ambrey and Vinnies Queensland chief executive officer Peter Maher.

ST Vincent de Paul Society Queensland and the University of Queensland have entered into a pioneering partnership to undertake research providing an evidence base for the charity’s “good works”.

Vinnies Queensland chief executive officer Peter Maher said: “It was critical for the society to understand what it is doing to assist people in need in our communities, and what is having the most impact on ending their dependency on charity and welfare.”

Vinnies has plenty of anecdotal evidence from its members in the community, who conduct on average 60,219 home visits to people in need each year.

But Vinnies decided it needed more robust evaluation of its activities to further strengthen credibility in the sector and to funding sources – be they valued donors or various grant funding bodies.

“Partnering with the University of Queensland’s Institute for Social Science Research has given us access to enormous expertise and research resources, none of which we have the capacity to realise in-house,” Mr Maher said.

In an initial 12-month partnership, researchers from the University of Queensland are examining and extrapolating from nearly 10 years of records held on the Vinnies Queensland client database.

In the thick of things is Dr Christopher Ambrey, who has been assigned to the project.

Describing himself as an “economist with a conscience”, Dr Ambrey has spent several months cleaning and coding the many thousands of entries in the database, which have all been de-identified to protect the privacy of people Vinnies supports.

He has been very ably supported by Mary O’Callaghan, helpline manager and the Brisbane Vinnies helpline staff and volunteers.

“Initially, the biggest challenge was familiarising myself with the complexity of the many large tables that make up the database and how they are related,” Dr Ambrey said.

Related Stories

Social services workers and vulnerable people need ready access to rapid antigen tests, Vinnies says

Brisbane and Gold Coast leaders sleeping on the job to raise money for homeless

Vinnies Youth are the ‘here and now’ of volunteer work

“It was the first of a number of challenges that I had to overcome.”

Using micro-econometric techniques Dr Ambrey, is using the data to build what he describes as “… one of the most sophisticated models I have developed”.

In practical terms Dr Ambrey’s analysis is providing Vinnies with valuable advice on what information it should capture from the people it assists.

“This aspect of the project is very timely as we are currently in discussions about moving to another client relationship management platform,” Mr Maher said.

The analysis is also providing interesting insights into the emergency relief services provided by Vinnies Queensland.

For example, one intriguing finding is that while the number of requests for assistance tend to be higher overall in the greater Brisbane metropolitan area, the number of requests for assistance throughout the rest of Queensland is increasing at a greater rate than metropolitan areas.

The research aims to explore how assistance may be more effectively targeted to reduce prolonged disadvantage and decrease long-term dependency on the support provided by Vinnies Queensland.

By Richard Robinson

Richard Robinson is a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society’s Queensland State Social Justice Committee.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Lynda Mussell’s helping change lives across the world

Next Post

New Lenten program to help with reflecting, sharing and living the Gospel

Guest Contributor

Related Posts

Testing woes: Shortages in the supply of rapid antigen tests is causing chaos for people needing a quick test result. Photo: CNS
QLD

Social services workers and vulnerable people need ready access to rapid antigen tests, Vinnies says

5 January 2022
Experience: First time participant and Urban 3mpire CEO Aaron McCauley shared his personal experiences with homelessness on the night.
QLD

Brisbane and Gold Coast leaders sleeping on the job to raise money for homeless

23 June 2021
Vinnies Youth are the ‘here and now’ of volunteer work
Australia

Vinnies Youth are the ‘here and now’ of volunteer work

18 May 2021
Next Post

New Lenten program to help with reflecting, sharing and living the Gospel

Pyne bills withdrawn after LNP votes to block proposed abortion legislation

Fr Peter Quin

Jesuits to leave Brisbane's Toowong parish

Popular News

  • Archie’s beating heart means he is not dead, according to a Catholic institute

    Archie’s beating heart means he is not dead, according to a Catholic institute

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Spirituality

Why you should go on a pilgrimage — more than once

by Guest Contributor
25 June 2022
0

SO many significant moments in my spiritual life are tied to sights, smells, sounds and emotions felt...

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

Celebration marks Sister Angela Mary’s 75 years’ service to Mater and Queensland

25 June 2022

Confraternity Carnival ready for a full return in Mackay next week

24 June 2022
Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

Parents of young mother considered for sainthood share powerful testimony at World Meeting of Families

24 June 2022
Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

Three Queensland deacons preparing for priestly ordinations in the next week

23 June 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping