Meet RISE’s change maker; why are we measuring our impact?

RISE has hired change maker Leigh Manson to measure the impact of our work as part of the mahi RISE is doing with impact consultancy The Ākina Foundation.

Leigh started work at RISE on January 8 and says there are two parts to her role.

“The first one is about really understanding, measuring and being able to tell a story about the impact our services have. The ‘So What’.

“The other is about using that information to improve our services and to communicate the difference we are making to be able to attract additional funding through social enterprise.”

RISE wants to become less reliant on government funding so it can safely continue its core business of helping people affected by family violence despite the political environment.

Leigh has more than 25 years of change management and innovation experience in the legal, insurance, medical and public sectors in South Africa and New Zealand. This varied work experience is useful in the business development sphere as it provides “many perspectives,” she says.

Ever since she was a teenager she has “just wanted to do something that made a difference”.

She trained as a lawyer but became disillusioned with that profession.

“So, I thought I’d climb up from the bottom of the cliff and try and change the system instead of cleaning up the mess it makes.”

Her shift from law and wanting to have a job with purpose led her to working in change management and becoming a Lean Six Sigma practitioner – a process that focusses on making systems and processes more customer-centric and efficient.

Leigh worked at the Auckland District Health Board and the Health Quality Safety Commission leading quality improvement and Advance Care Planning. Advance care planning puts the consumer at the centre of healthcare design and delivery by focussing on what matters most to them. It was work she loved.

After other roles including a stint at Te Whatu Ora, Leigh says she was keen to return to working closer to home in her community, rather than in a national role.

She’s looking forward to raising awareness of the facts that services exist for people who use violence, people can change, and the family unit doesn’t necessarily need to break down. “I’m not sure that is so well known.”

“And I think there is always opportunity to be broadening awareness and doing preventative work which is exactly where RISE sits.”

She was also attracted to the role at RISE as it was a good fit with her other part time role as project lead for setting up a Regional Community Development Agency for Te Tauihu.

“The agency is looking at how it can support all the not-for-profits across the top of the South Island with back-office functions and in other ways. When I saw the RISE job offered, I thought it was the perfect partner for the agency role as it puts me in a not-for-profit doing exactly what we are going to be trying to support others to do.”

Leigh Manson is helping RISE measure its social impact. RISE wants to be less reliant on Government funding so we can continue our core business of helping peoeple affected by family violence.

While she is still new to her RISE role she sees her priorities for the first three months as getting to really understand RISE and the services it offers. She also wants to understand the opportunities that exist in the Family Violence sector locally and nationally.

Leigh will work with the measures Ākina has helped produce to measure RISE’s impact.

“In the not-for-profit sector we are not very good at being able to describe the impact we have. Yes, we can count how many customers we saw, how many times we saw them, how many sessions we ran and the number of people who completed the courses. And often those are the sort of measures that funders want. So, you saw 10 people, but what difference did that make? My role at RISE is about answering that question.

“We do important work and we need to demonstrate that the services we do offer do change the behaviour of people who we work with, which has an impact on their children and their whānau, which has an impact on society.”

Outside of work, Leigh enjoys keeping active. You can regularly find her at the gym F45 in Richmond. She plays tennis, loves tramping, and enjoys travelling and exploring new places and cultures “to understand people’s different ways of being”.

A mum to three – her eldest is 25 and her youngest 16 – she also has a border collie and three cats. “I would have more, but then I worry about being called the crazy cat lady.”

Leigh says she is excited about working with the amazing team at RISE and looking forward to learning new things. “I’m an avid learner. I’m like a sponge.” She’s also excited, of course, about making a difference in people’s lives.