The Living Learning program was launched on Wednesday, 28 April 2021, at the Hester Hornbrook Academy (HHA) in Sunshine in Melbourne’s west. HHA is an independent school run by Melbourne City Mission for young people disengaged from the traditional school system. The program is funded as an impact investment under the Victorian Government’s $30m ‘Partnerships Addressing Disadvantage’ (or PAD) program (also known as Social Impact Bonds, or SIBs).

The program is important not just because of the social impact on young people, but also because of the way this impact investment is structured. We co-developed a new finance structure that makes it easier for philanthropic trusts to invest in social impact investments. This structure provides opportunities for social service organisations to develop investable projects in collaboration with their philanthropic partners.

The Living Learning social impact investment was fully funded by these five philanthropic Investors:

• Gandel Philanthropy
• Helen Macpherson Smith Trust
• Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation
• Paul Ramsay Foundation​
• The Ross Trust

​To learn more about the project structure  download the fact sheet below. You can also get in touch with us if you are considering developing a Philanthropic Impact Investment project.

 You can also sign up to attend a Webinar we are running with our capital advisory partners Social Enterprise Finance Australia (SEFA) and Gandel Philanthropy through Pro Bono Education on 27 May 2021. Sign up to our newsletter to receive the registration link for the webinar.

Latitude Network congratulates Melbourne City Mission (MCM) on the announcement of its Partnership Addressing Disadvantage (PAD) contract with the Victorian State Government known as the ‘Living Learning’ program. 
 
Latitude Network supported MCM in its initial PAD application and throughout the negotiation with Government, providing advice and technical assistance across service design, financial model, negotiation and data use. We are now working with MCM to develop a live data and performance system set up to help them achieve their outcomes targets.
 
‘Living Learning’ is a new, targeted program which addresses barriers for young people who are disengaged from school and living with mental illness. MCM developed the program using its expertise in re-engaging with, and supporting, young people through their independent school, the Hester Hornbrook Academy. 
 
As lead advisors to MCM throughout the journey, we are excited to see the program announced and young people able to start entering the program from today.
 
Latitude Network was also pleased to work with leading Australian social finance experts, Sefa, who provided advice on blended capital structuring options, targeting foundation investors using their corpus and granting arm.

We can’t yet share the details of the innovative financial structure behind Living Learning. Sign up to our newsletter so we can let you know those details as soon as they are available. 
 
At a future date we will also be running a Webinar with Sefa in collaboration with Pro Bono News to talk through the details of the investment structure. Keep an eye out for the invitation.

Key program elements include - 

• ​144 participants aged 15 to 21 across Melbourne;
• Three-year program through MCM's independent school, the Hester Hornbrook Academy which has specialised campuses across Melbourne;
• Education and support for young people who are disengaged from employment, education and training and who have a mental health condition; and
• Part of the State Government's Partnerships Addressing Disadvantage social impact investment program.

​See the Victorian Government's Press Release here.

iiSOCIAL ISSUE 

Each year, large numbers of people in the mental health system struggle to secure and maintain housing and fall into long-term homelessness. This has significant consequences for their long-term health & wellbeing and puts a high burden on the state’s housing and health systems.

CLIENT CHALLENGE  

Wellways, a national provider of mental health services and leader in sub-acute mental health care, developed the Doorway approach. Doorway supports clients out of a clinical mental health service and into a home by leveraging Australia’s second-largest housing market - private rentals. Doorway does the heavy-lifting to make sure that people engage with and secure a long-term tenancy in the private rental market. This radically increases the supply of housing available to this client group, whilst normalising the process of maintaining housing in the community - not in the public housing system. Wellways has iterated and proven the Doorway model over nearly a decade and an academic review demonstrates its efficacy. 

However, the challenge for Wellways was that despite Doorway having demonstrated value and impact, there were not any established channels or processes for Wellways to proactively approach Government about continuing this program beyond its pilot. 

THE ROLE LATITUDE NETWORK PLAYED 

Latitude Network worked closely with Wellways to strengthen the proposition as an outcomes-based program and transform Doorway into a convincing proactive funding approach to Government. 

We undertook a deep-dive into the Doorway segmentation data to see for whom it worked best and under what circumstances. We then advised Wellways on how the program could be dialled-up in these areas to create a more compelling investment case for funders. We used a multi-year, data-driven analysis of client outcomes linked through to the program logic and developed a discounted cash flow financial model that reflects the 10-year cost-savings to Government in Net Present Value terms. 

THE TRANSFORMATION / IMPACT

The process of reframing a proven program as an outcomes-oriented program has helped enhance Wellways’ business capacity and confidence to deliver on its promises to clients. It can now target clear and specific outcomes to be delivered with confidence.
 
The Doorway transformation has also created a template for the future, enabling Wellways to apply this methodology to other successful programs. Most importantly, perhaps, the process has reinforced Wellways’ position as a service provider who wants to continuously do better despite traditional block funding mechanisms. Through Doorway, the organisation is now ready for the future world of outcomes-based funding. 

SOCIAL ISSUE 

Cricket, and the local cricket club, is at the heart of hundreds of communities across Victoria. Growing participation numbers are a positive sign that cricket plays an important community role,  transcending age, gender, race and ability. However the impact cricket has on the local community is largely undefined, and often it's potential is often untapped.

CLIENT CHALLENGE  

Cricket Victoria - one of Victoria's leading sporting organisations - intrinsically knew that cricket connects communities and improves lives by bringing people together. It was clear that cricket delivered mental, physical and cultural benefits, positively shaping the lives of the individuals and communities involved. 

However, Cricket Victoria wanted to know ‘How can we measure and enhance our social impact through the cricket experience?’. And, ‘How can we be more targeted and deliberate in the impact we deliver locally’?

Cricket Vic also recognised that the needs and issues important to the community varies across the thousands of cricket clubs across the state. Any system for improving social impact would therefore need to be:

• Adaptable - to a local context;
• Simple - to allow clubs to implement themselves;
• Repeatable - so that it could be expanded across the state; and 
• Meaningful - to deliver real social impact. 

THE ROLE LATITUDE NETWORK PLAYED 
 
This project was delivered over two key stages: the first focused on understanding the needs of local clubs, communities and the types of social and health issues that clubs could realistically engage with. It delivered a frame and a method that Cricket Vic could use to help clubs enhance their social impact using participation as the main tool. The second stage (ongoing through 2020-21) is piloting the process (known as the Community Outcomes Framework) by working with clubs themselves to co-design initiatives to identify and address local needs and using data to measure the impact.

IMPACT 

Latitude Network has built a Community Impact Framework for Cricket Victoria that, once tested, will enable cricket clubs right around Victoria to identify and address important social issues within the community using participation as the key tool. We continue to work with Cricket Vic and clubs in stage 2 (2020-21) to co-design local impact initiatives and use data to  monitor and evidence the effect during the club cricket season.  

SOCIAL ISSUE 

SHM began life with the opening of the parish doors in Grey Street, St Kilda, to host meals for locals experiencing homelessness. 
 
Nearly 40 years on and SHM is now a leader in providing intensive support for people right across the homelessness spectrum using engagement services (meals and welcoming physical spaces) and individualised service support as well as providing accommodation and support.
 
SHM’s program, Journey to Social Inclusion (J2SI), was born in the late-2000s out of the organisation’s concern that ‘business as usual’ was not allowing them to do the job they wanted to do - end homelessness for some of Melbourne’s most vulnerable people.  As a result of the inherent silos in the social and health service systems, SHM decided to invest in building an evidence-based, outcomes-focused program for clients linking a ‘rapid-housing’ response with targeted help over the long-term (three years) - something the current service system found almost impossible to do.​

CLIENT CHALLENGE

After raising funds to run J2SI as a pilot as well as an expanded phase 2, SHM’s challenge was to continue to attract funding to both keep the program going but also to grow the program so that SHM could reach more of those it knew needed more targeted support. 
 
In late 2016 the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance issued a ‘Request for Proposal’ for its Social Impact Bond (SIB) Pilot Program. SHM saw this as an opportunity to both continue the growth and reach of J2SI while also testing an ‘outcomes-based funding’ approach for J2SI.
 
But this was going to be a competitive tender with perhaps up to 20 organisations interested in applying. How do we make SHM’s J2SI program stand out and then, if successful, negotiate something that had no precedent in Victoria?

THE ROLE LATITUDE NETWORK PLAYED / THE OUTCOME

Latitude Network acted as a specialist advisor, project manager and negotiator through both the tender application and contract negotiation stages. Russ Wood helped coordinate the existing expertise, talent and energy within SHM and the J2SI program, translating that into a negotiating approach that would help meet the Government’s outcomes, policy and financial agenda while also getting SHM the best outcome.
 
It was intense work - fortnightly negotiation meetings with Government (led by Treasury officials) meant weekly SHM team meetings to review the meeting agenda and do the work to prepare to negotiate and, importantly, problem-solve the many challenges.
 
Latitude Network not only helped keep the process on track - but also provided timely advice on the political and policy environment as well as the emerging outcomes-based funding environment.

THE TRANSFORMATION / IMPACT

J2SI became Victoria’s first ever SIB to be agreed when Victoria's Minister for Housing signed the contract with SHM in December 2017.
 
As a result of this, SHM is now able to provide intensive, tailored support over three years to 180 individuals experiencing chronic homelessness. Keep in touch to hear further updates as the project progresses.

Outcomes framework, collective impact, local government, social impact
Australian first: $50m+ outcomes-based health & wellness hub in Brimbank, Melbourne

SOCIAL ISSUE 

The municipality of Brimbank sits in Melbourne’s rapidly-growing west. It’s new health and wellness hub is located in St Albans, a suburb which has experienced deep social and health inequities for several decades.

CLIENT CHALLENGE  

St Albans sits at the heart of the disadvantage that runs through the region and, in Keilor Downs on the border of St Albans is the suburb’s leisure centre (SALC). While the SALC had a loyal band of users it was well-beyond its useful life with growing maintenance costs adding to the challenges of running a tired community facility in a way that generates great community outcomes.

Council wanted to go beyond a redevelopment and create a centre of regional leadership. The aim is not just to create a world-class facility (with pool, gym, community spaces) but also to ensure the infrastructure investment addresses some of the deep social and health challenges faced by people in the area.   

But how can a building do this? Typically, an infrastructure project focuses on risk, speed and staying within budget. Time is money. Often the thinking about services, impacts and site usage are delayed until after the concrete is poured.

But Council wanted to make sure the development actually addressed some of the social and health inequities in the region as well as being an example of great community built-form.

THE ROLE LATITUDE NETWORK PLAYED / THE OUTCOME

Latitude Network designed and built an ‘Outcomes-Based Infrastructure’ process for Council that put a set of health and social outcomes at the heart of the development. This involved analysing social needs and patterns in the community, governance design, outcomes framework, collaboration and management structure and service design.

The process brought together the ‘community’ vision of the site with the ‘physical’ vision for the site to make sure that the investment worked harder to achieve targeted community outcomes.

In addition to helping guide the physical infrastructure decisions as part of the Project Control Group, Latitude Network advised Council on a tenancy tender process that attracted the right social service providers to join the projects as long-term tenants. The tenancy agreements even include provisions around setting and achieving outcomes - a first for a project of this type.

THE TRANSFORMATION / IMPACT
​
The project has proven that the money that governments and communities spend on infrastructure can be leveraged for higher social impact without delaying the build. Infrastructure dollars can create great spaces but also be accountable for positive changes in people’s lives.

More than simply a ‘hub’, the embedding of social and health outcomes into the infrastructure process has meant that alongside new world-class facilities there are also key tenants at the site who are coming together with a program logic to address long-running social and health challenges. 

The development has also spawned a ‘collective impact’ project to build community momentum around addressing local social issues using the Hub. It has been set up as the ‘Impact Brimbank’ initiative with a diverse group of community members, and is building support in advance of the opening of the Hub.