Impact assessment for Women’s Centres Connect

Women Centre’s Connect (WCC) is launching a province-wide Impact Assessment Initiative that will rigorously measure—and transparently communicate—the economic and social returns generated by its programs, with the explicit goal of unlocking sustained government funding. This project will build a robust evidence framework that traces how WCC’s services move women from economic inactivity or precarious circumstances into stable employment, quantifying outcomes such as incremental tax revenues, public-service cost savings (e.g., reduced shelter use and crisis interventions), and downstream community benefits. Drawing on best-practice methodologies used in labour-market and social-finance evaluations, the assessment will consolidate fragmented data sources, introduce new outcome metrics, and apply a defensible return-on-investment (ROI) model that aligns with the province’s economic-development agenda. By producing an independently validated report and an easy-to-update dashboard, the initiative will equip policy makers with hard numbers—rather than moral appeals—demonstrating that every dollar invested in WCC yields multiple dollars in fiscal and productivity gains. Securing funding for this assessment is therefore pivotal: without empirical proof of impact, WCC risks losing the resources and legitimacy required to expand its work, whereas a credible ROI case will position the organization to secure a permanent, government-funded role in driving Nova Scotia’s economic growth.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ethan Pancer

Student:

Partner:

Connect Women Centres

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

Saint Mary's University

Program: