DARDY Project evaluation
Legal Aid Western Australia receives the 2026 Enhancing the Social Good Award for its evaluation of the Disability Advocacy and Referral Diversion for Young People (DARDY) Project. The evaluation demonstrates how culturally safe, practical and deeply contextual evaluation can strengthen a service while helping secure better outcomes for young people experiencing disadvantage.
The DARDY Project supports young people under 25 who are interacting with the justice system and have unmet needs. Working in partnership with agencies across Western Australia, it provides holistic, culturally safe and therapeutic case management.
The evaluation was conducted by internal staff with strong knowledge of the service environment and trusted relationships with clients. It used innovative and culturally appropriate tools, approaches and materials to ensure data collection and reporting were safe, meaningful and useful to those involved.
The findings made an important contribution to improving the project and demonstrating its value. They helped support the case for permanent funding, documented the experiences and outcomes of participants, and provided evidence to guide expansion of the service.
Assessors particularly commended the strength and accessibility of the evaluation report, describing it as exceptionally comprehensive and readable for an internal evaluation. Its presentation of client perspectives powerfully illustrates how both the DARDY Project and its evaluation contribute to addressing inequality and enhancing social good.
Legal Aid Western Australia has also demonstrated a willingness to share its tools and learning more broadly, extending the value of the evaluation beyond the project itself.
About the Enhancing the Social Good Award
This Award recognises exemplary evaluation work that has substantially enhanced the social good. Social good is defined as benefits that are experienced by the community. This Award is particularly focused on evaluation work which both recognises and helps to redress inequalities in society. It is concerned with promoting access and equity for communities or groups which experience disadvantage and marginalisation. The evaluation work may, for example, focus on issues such as poverty, deficits in health or education and geographic or social isolation. The disadvantage and marginalisation experienced may also intersect with issues such as race, age, gender, sexual orientation, physical or intellectual ability or ethnic background.
The evaluation work which is recognised may reflect a range of activities. This includes, for example, the conduct of program and policy evaluations, evaluation education, advocacy, sponsorship of particular kinds of evaluation, and efforts to promote the use of evaluation.