Evaluation of the Living in Harmony Festival

Funding or Partner Organisation: The Council of the City of Sydney (City of Sydney)

Start year: 2015

Summary: Evaluation of the relevance, effectiveness and the impact of the City of Sydney Living in Harmony Festival in achieving its intended outcomes to date, both at the population level and for participating organisations. Evaluation outcomes have been envisaged as increased understanding of how local government initiatives can best promote and support social inclusion and community connectedness in diverse neighbourhoods and recommendations for a future program model that involves ongoing programming to achieve social inclusion objectives across the broader City of Sydney population. The methodology employed to achieve these aims includes conduct of focus groups of up to 20 participants including festival volunteers and relevant stakeholders, development and fielding of two online surveys, one to community organisations and volunteers and another to festival attendees along with 15 semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. Project output is an evaluation report providing analysis of the program evaluation and including evidence for potential future directions

Keywords: local government, evaluation, social inclusion, local government initiatives

FOR Codes: Arts and Cultural Policy, Cultural Understanding not elsewhere classified, Other culture and society not elsewhere classified, Pacific Peoples connection to land and environment

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.