About the centre

The Centre for Community Research and Evaluation works with the social service sector to increase research and evaluation capacity.

CCRE-logo

The te reo translation of the Centre’s name – Pūtahi Rangahau Ngātahi – represents everything that the Centre stands for. The Centre’s core mission is to bring together practitioners, researchers, students, and other stakeholders, to advance evidence for the social sector. Pūtahi implies a coming together from different places, an intersection; it broadly translates to ‘research collaboration’. The merging of two rivers, depicted in the iconic New Zealand image of the Kawarau River valley near Queenstown, represents the notion of partnership, the flow of ideas and the weaving together of collaborations.

The Centre for Community Research and Evaluation was established in 2017 and is hosted by the School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland.

Working in collaboration with the social services sector the Centre strives to increase research and evaluation capacity through targeted support and networking.

Vision

A social services community which has the research and evaluation skills including implementation, dissemination and utilisation to enhance practice.

Mission

To work with not-for-profit and community-based organisations to foster practice excellence and build capacity in the social services sector, through training in research and evaluation, in order to contribute evidence of what works.

Goals of the Centre

The goals of the centre are two-fold:

1. Develop collaborations by:

  • Promoting connection with stakeholders in the not-for-profit sector and key partners both nationally and internationally
  • Facilitating opportunities within and across sectors to enhance collective learning and engagement

2. Increase research and evaluation capacity by:

  • Coaching and mentoring organisational leaders and human services professionals to develop their own research capabilities so that they can evaluate, refine and improve their own social programmes
  • Supervising or facilitating research on the many exemplary or innovative programmes and interventions relevant to local communities in New Zealand
  • Developing and promoting collaborations with stakeholders in the not-for-profit sector and key partners both nationally and internationally
  • Partnering with our large stable of community partners to develop sector-wide research priorities and facilitate sector collaboration]
  • Developing specialised leadership capabilities to support organisational readiness for research in the non-profit sector
  • Ensuring the development of a robust evaluation approach to interventions

Operating principles

The centre is committed to collaborative evaluation research partnerships and uphold the following operating principles:

  • Jointly agreeing the direction
  • An equal partnership
  • Innovation
  • Practice will add value to research and research will add value to practice
  • Develop an atmosphere of mutual respect
  • Develop open communication
  • Recognise differences in the approach of the researcher and the organisation
  • Recognise the needs of all people
  • Respect nationally recognised ethical codes and evaluation standards
  • Evaluation research is a process not an outcome

Contact us

Would you like to discuss a research project, an evaluation,
upskilling, or partnership? Get in contact with us today through
ccre@auckland.ac.nz to see how we can work together in the future.