Past events

Check out the highlights from some of our events and activities from 2017-2019.

Over 90 individuals from across Aotearoa New Zealand attended the fourth annual youth development research symposium co-hosted by the Graeme Dingle Foundation and CCRE
Youth development research symposium co-hosted by the Graeme Dingle Foundation and CCRE
  • In 2019, practitioners from various organisations in Auckland took part a series of five workshops offered by CCRE experts to help organisations establish their research needs and build research and evaluation capabilities. The workshops fostered fruitful conversations around ethics, building a theory of change, the basics of evaluation, along with how to collect the right evidence and work through associated challenges
  • "Exploring the wellbeing of young people in Aotearoa Research Symposium" - On 2 August, over 90 individuals from across Aotearoa New Zealand attended the fourth annual youth development research symposium co-hosted by the Graeme Dingle Foundation and CCRE. The theme for the 2019 symposium, our largest yet, was “Exploring the wellbeing of young people in Aotearoa” and included presentations focused on the big picture of youth development as well as more focused postgraduate research on the Graeme Dingle Foundation’s Project K programme. Big picture topics included the youth-focused outcomes from the Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report; youth voices on “What makes a good life” from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, an innovative report on young people’s experiences of social media in Aotearoa New Zealand; and key learnings from literature review of youth development research conducted in Aotearoa New Zealand to inform revised Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa principles. We thank the Graeme Dingle Foundation for their continued partnership with CCRE.
  • On 15 March, 2019, CCRE had our first of five workshops in our 2019 series. We had an engaging afternoon talking about the importance of research in practice and of aligning the organisation research and evaluation plan with strategic objectives. We also had two practitioners share their experiences of getting started (Robyn Rummins) and of developing a research agenda (Wendy Brenmer).
  • In November 2018, the Centre for Community Research and Evaluation co-hosted the “Turning Youth Development Practice into Evidence” research symposium with the Graeme Dingle Foundation and Ara Taiohi at the Ellen Melville Centre in Central Auckland. The full day event was well attended by a range of organisational representatives from across the youth development sector. The day kicked off with four short presentations geared to get the attendees thinking about different aspects of evaluation and programme development before engaging in an interactive, facilitated discussion about how to collaboratively advance evaluation practice within the sector.
  • The Centre for Community Research and Evaluation hosted a workshop for practice-based researchers on 8th March 2018 entitled "Exploring Theory of Change in Designing Practice-Relevant Evaluations." The workshop guided participants through a process to critically reflect on their assumptions of how their programmes or services produce change. These ideas were then used to construct the beginnings of a theory of change that could be used to guide future evaluation decisions.
  • The Centre for Community Research and Evaluation hosted a workshop for practice-based researchers on 17th November 2017 entitled "Navigating Practice Research Ethics: Exploring Key Waypoints"
  • The Graeme Dingle Foundation and the Centre for Community Research and Evaluation co-hosted a symposium on 7 July 2017 entitled "Creating Caring Connections". The symposium showcased evaluation research conducted by youth development organisations and postgraduate student researchers. Other highlights included keynote speeches from The Honourable Nikki Kaye, previous Minister for Youth, and Rez Gardi, the 2017 Young New Zealander of the year, and a performance by Dr Michelle Johansson of the Black Friars Theatre Company and Teach First NZ.
  • On 17 March 2017 the Centre for Community Research and Evaluation hosted Milton and Florence Krenz Mack Distinguished Professor of Nonprofit Management Michael Austin from the University of California Berkeley for a day of practice research informed CPD. This was the Centre’s first cross-sector event and both sessions were well attended by a range of colleagues from the not-for-profit, health and social care sectors.