Evidence-based approaches bring industry and community benefits

Applied behavioural science firm Evidn is using behavioural science and psychology to help Queenslanders solve problems, effecting positive change in a range of fields from farming and wine-growing to improving health.

Evidn has helped pioneer evidence-based approaches to working in complex organisational, industrial and community settings, gaining understanding of people’s motivations, preferences, attitudes and priorities to create positive change.

Evidn supports the Queensland Government’s procurement priority, ‘Delivering for Queensland’ through its engagement with over 1,300 stakeholders over 10 agricultural industries in over 10 Queensland regions alone, designing tailored programs to create positive practice change, drought resilience, sustainable farming and improved industry cohesion.

It also delivers for Queensland by successfully scaling its services to the United States (U.S.), where its ‘Project Cane Changer’ program developed in Queensland’s cane fields is being adapted for the Finger Lakes farming community in New York state.

Seven Queensland-based full-time staff undertake project and field work nationally.

Evidn’s pioneering behaviour change approach has been successfully applied to settings in road safety, Indigenous health, recycling, sustainability, energy conservation, and most recently in Queensland, in community health.

Senior Behavioural Scientist and Health Project Manager, Crystal La Rue said Evidn were engaged by Health and Wellbeing Queensland to launch, ‘Do Your Thing’ in Bundaberg, an initiative under the ‘Building a Healthy Bundaberg Alliance’.

The Alliance is led by the Queensland Government through Health and Wellbeing Queensland and the Department of Tourism, Innovation, and Sport, in partnership with Bundaberg Regional Council, and aims to decrease the region’s overweight and obesity rate to below the national average by 2030.

Do Your Thing is a value-add mechanism for the Alliance to leverage health and wellbeing services and programs that already exist in the community and bring together key providers and community groups to better coordinate their services. Evidn, in partnership with the Alliance, brought together 41 leaders from 28 organisations for Do Your Thing.

Through collaborative work, the initiative has achieved:

• 309% increase in connections made between service providers
• 186% increase in the number of health activities and initiatives in the region
• 35% increase in the number of community members engaged in health programs
• 63% increase in participation rate in health programs.

“We provided a framework for bringing the community together,” Crystal said

“It's about building change in the system so that it's sustainable and long lasting and has a real tangible impact in the long-term. It's also about making sure that we're meeting the community’s unique priorities and needs.”

Through its evidence-based approach, Evidn is delivering positive change within Queensland communities, while contributing to the economy through its export program.