Partnership and the MOSAIC project

"All our mentors are mothers. It's about seeing another woman who's been through difficult times, brought up kids, and is now confident and giving back." – Project Coordinator Ann Harley

There are many projects out there using various strategies aimed at improving the health and wellbeing of women and children. But how do we know they work? Our sector is increasingly being asked to produce evidence of their programs’ impact by governments and other funders; underlining the importance of proper planning, monitoring and evaluation of all our programs.

Research also has an important part to play. If research can find evidence that a strategy has real impact, it is more likely to be funded on a wider scale. This was the aim of MOSAIC, the pilot for a community randomised trial which is a collaboration between the Centre for Mother and Child Health Research at La Trobe University, the Department of General Practice at the University of Melbourne, and Women's Health West. MOSAIC explores the effectiveness of training volunteer mothers to support other women who are pregnant or have children under five.

Partnering with a community organization has been important to grounding the research in the realities of women's experiences and the services they use, according to Dr Angela Taft from La Trobe University. Locating the project with Women's Health West has also enabled Project Coordinator Ann Harley to build up networks with services that benefit both volunteers and the women being supported.