The Department of Human Services South Australia (DHS SA), through its Office for Women (OFW), plays a pivotal role in advancing gender equity across South Australia. The OFW collaborates with government bodies, the private sector, and the wider community to drive systemic change in areas such as women's leadership, economic security, safety, and health.
One such initiative is the Regional Safety Hubs network; local entry points that provide safe, community-based access to support for women and children experiencing or at risk of domestic, family, and sexual violence (DFSV). Since 2019, these hubs have grown in number and reach, with each one led by a local service organisation embedded in its region.
Recognising the growth and growing impact of this place-based approach, and in light of South Australia’s Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence (established in July 2024), OFW engaged Portable to deliver an independent evaluation. The goal: to understand how the hubs are working in practice, what outcomes they’re delivering, and how future service investment and strategy could be informed by local insights.
The challenge
The OFW partnered with Portable in March 2025 to evaluate the ten Safety Hubs operating across regional South Australia.
The evaluation sought to understand whether the Safety Hubs are achieving their intended purpose within their local community context and as a broader regional service model.
Each hub operates within a context of limited funding and constrained DFSV service infrastructure. The model relies on a lean workforce of full-time staff supported by local volunteers. Many hubs have limited capacity for formal monitoring and performance reporting, which created challenges for evaluating outcomes using conventional metrics.
Additionally, some foundational documents to guide evaluation, such as a theory of change and program logic, had not been developed. The evaluation therefore needed to take a pragmatic and collaborative approach to close these gaps; using this as an opportunity not only to identify the service outcomes achieved, but also to explore how future evaluation efforts could be strengthened and supported to build a clearer evidence base over time.
Our approach
Portable took a human-centred, strengths-based, and learning-oriented approach to this evaluation, drawing on the lived experience and practice-based knowledge of staff, volunteers, and community partners.
This approach provided richer insights into how the service was performing and helped to address gaps in available operational data.
Portable aligned the evaluation with the Department of Human Services’ outcomes framework which sets out the high-level outcomes and indicators expected of funded programs and services. Without a program-specific theory of change or program logic, the DHS outcomes framework ensured the work was anchored in a recognised set of outcomes and indicators, rather than starting from scratch or making assumptions about intent.
The evaluation focused on four key areas:
- Effective program delivery
- Community Integration
- Engaging priority cohorts
- Continuous Improvement
The work was structured across three key phases.
Phase 1: Insights into community needs and hub demand
We developed an evaluation and engagement plan outlining our mixed-methods approach and how it would generate insights across the four key focus areas. We conducted desktop research drawing on national datasets, government reports, policy documents, and academic and sector research to build community demographic profiles for each region. This helped the client better understand local needs, service contexts, and factors influencing demand for Safety Hub services. We also analysed operational data to provide a foundation for understanding service delivery and reach, identifying key trends, practices, and opportunities ahead of the qualitative phase.
Phase 2: Understanding what’s working in practice
In this phase we gathered qualitative insights through workshops and an online survey with staff, volunteers, and community stakeholders from partner organisations. These activities drew on their lived experience and practice-based knowledge to build on the findings from Phase 1, giving the client a richer understanding of how the Hubs operate in practice and where future improvements could be made.
Phase 3: Actionable recommendations to shape future decisions
In this phase, we drew together all evaluation insights, showcasing the unique strengths of each Hub and illustrating examples of effective practice through case studies. This included success stories for engaging priority cohorts, examples of innovative service delivery, effective engagement and awareness raising activities and integration with other community organisations.
We synthesised our findings into a set of clear recommendations to help OFW understand:
- The effectiveness of the current model
- Opportunities to strengthen community engagement and service integration
- Potential directions for investment, resourcing, and governance
- Ways to improve data collection and ongoing evaluation capacity
- Continuous improvement mechanisms and workforce capacity building
This included where the model is working well, how it could be further strengthened, and how future planning and investment decisions could be guided by evidence from this evaluation.
The impact
The evaluation equipped the OFW and the DHS with a solid evidence base to inform decisions about sustainable funding and the future growth of the Safety Hubs model.
It highlighted how the Hubs are deeply embedded in their local communities, building trust through welcoming, client-centred spaces, and responding to a broad range of intersecting needs intersecting with domestic, family, and sexual violence.
The final report offered a roadmap for sustainable funding, stronger governance, and better evaluation practices, while celebrating the adaptive, person-centred work of local partner organisations across South Australia.
What it was like to work on the project
From our partner
“We commissioned Portable to conduct an evaluation of a statewide program providing safe and accessible entry points throughout regional South Australia, to women and children experiencing domestic, family and sexual violence. From the outset, their team demonstrated a deep commitment to the project, bringing warmth, authenticity, and a genuine passion for the work that was clearly reflected in the final evaluation report.
"The quality of their work was exceptional—thorough, insightful, and clearly aligned with the program’s goals and values. Communication with Portable was seamless; they were responsive, proactive, and consistently open to feedback, which they accepted with grace and professionalism. Their collaborative approach made the process not only efficient but also enjoyable.
"I would not hesitate to recommend Portable for future projects. Their integrity, expertise, and dedication make them a valuable partner in any evaluation or strategic initiative.”
Ashleigh Horsnell, Manager, Women’s Information Service
From a Portable team member
“A key part of this evaluation was hearing directly from the people delivering and supporting the Hubs. Their insights gave important context to the data and helped shape recommendations that are practical and grounded in real experience."
Alice Reeve, Senior Producer, Portable
Project team
- Alice Reeve, Senior Producer
- Joanne Osbourne-Taylor, Lead Evaluator
- Anita Cooksey, Strategic Designer
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