By Soraya Kassim, Palms Executive Director
I have been looking this month at formalising what I believe is tacitly understood as Palms’ Theory of Change, following the review last year of our Mission Statement. This is a pictorial summary:
It is the final stage of impact which particularly struck me: “Mentors and mentees increase their capabilities to contribute to just, sustainable, interdependent and peaceful communities.” This outcome sits at the heart of everything we do—yet how do we truly measure it?
A New Chapter: Gap Year Positions
This year we decided to trial the establishment of Gap Year positions, starting with roles in Timor-Leste and Cambodia. This initiative emerged from specific requests from our partners, but it also acknowledges the anecdotal feedback we consistently receive regarding the life-changing impact of placements on our participants.
While our retiree and mid-career participants are always well received by partners, there’s something uniquely powerful about formation at the beginning of one’s career. And as our world grapples with increasing inequality, accelerating climate change, biodiversity loss, and the erosion of cultural diversity, could there be a more urgent time for young people to learn to operate with fresh and challenging perspectives?
The Missing Piece: Measuring Long-term Impact
We have made considerable efforts to measure the international development impact of our placements through partner feedback and community outcomes. However, we have not formally measured our impact through the ongoing social justice work of Palms participants when they return home. This represents a significant gap in understanding our true contribution to creating the “just, sustainable, interdependent and peaceful world” we envision.
I am now seeking your help to derive simple, meaningful impact indicators that align with our proposed Theory of Change and capture this often-invisible but vital dimension of our work.
What Success Looks Like
If we were to survey our participants one year, five years, or ten years after their return, what would we hope to discover? Perhaps that they had leveraged their enhanced cultural competency, mentoring skills, and expanded worldview to support community action to:
· Assist with the settlement of new refugees or migrants in their communities;
· Work as allies with local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander justice campaigns;
· Address racism and foster greater social cohesion in Australia;
· Champion simpler living practices and challenge conspicuous consumption;
· Create opportunities for their communities to live ‘closer to the land’; or
· Engage meaningfully in international solidarity work.
But perhaps there are other indicators we should consider?
Your lived experience as participants, supporters, and partners makes you uniquely positioned to help us identify what truly matters. What changes have you witnessed in yourself or others? What impacts, however subtle, deserve recognition and measurement?
Join the Conversation
I invite your ideas, reflections, and suggestions. Help us develop a framework that honours both the profound personal transformations and the ripple effects of social change that emerge from Palms experiences by suggesting your ideas on what other measures we might include in a participant survey.
I look forward to hearing from you via this email link.