PRF has partnered with Two Good Co. since 2021. To further support its mission of helping vulnerable women improve their employment opportunities and overall wellbeing, PRF commissioned an evaluation of Two Good Co's Work Work program. In 2023, PRF commissioned Parenting Research Centre to evaluate whether the program was implemented as intended, whether it achieved the intended outcomes, and whether it is sustainable and scalable. The evaluation used the following methods:
- Implementation/Process Evaluation - Interviews with TGC Staff, use of TGC’s regular surveys
- Impact Evaluation – Interviews with the women participating, TGC staff, other stakeholders, surveys of participating women, and photovoice.
On employment outcomes, interviews indicated that Work Work programs created confidence in the women which they took into new workplaces and could use to achieve a level of financial independence. Exact program graduation and employment figures can be found in the report.
On outcomes related to self-worth, connection, and healing, qualitative findings from the interviews support empirical results from the assessment data (validated tools used in surveys). These demonstrated that outcome scores for self-worth, confidence, hope for the future, personal relationships and community connectedness improved over time. Improvements were not only significant statistically but were also clinically meaningful (there was a statistical difference, and that difference was large enough to be meaningful).
The TGC Work Work program created positive impact on wellbeing and employment, but at high cost. Challenges to consistently follow up with the women after they finished the program is an ongoing barrier to measuring the full impact on employment. The evaluation also identified some other the barriers and challenges Two Good Co faced, e.g. complex demands on staff members. The findings also show that a social enterprise approach has been effective in assisting people with complex barriers to thriving, though not without difficulty in balancing the dual focus of income generation with supporting the women.
