Q&A with InCommunity

Recently, the ASVB were fortunate enough to sit down with one of our current Grant Recipient’s, Paul Tommasini, CEO of inCommunity, to ask him about his organisation’s experience of using the ASVB.

ASVB Q1: We met you at the National Housing Conference in 2017, was this the first time you had heard about the ASVB?
Paul: Yeah it was. You had a booth set-up and I was really impressed with what the ASVB had to offer, I could see the value of it right away. After the conference I was really keen to use the ASVB so after the Christmas break and Board approval, I signed up; we we’re lucky enough to be eligible for the Grants Program.

ASVB Q2: What programs have you used the ASVB to value the social impact of?
Paul: We have mainly used it to measure the impact of our brand new program, the Tenancy Skills Institute. The Tenancy Skills Institute is a competency-based training program that is delivered to current or prospective clients who are having difficulty entering the private rental market. It creates a win-win situation for both tenants and property managers, by teaching tenants the skills needed to maintain a tenancy. We have also used the ASVB to value our Specialist Homelessness Services.

ASVB Q3: The Tenancy Skills Institute (TSI) sounds like such a great program that will help meet a real need. How has the ASVB helped you with that program and are you using it for anything else?
Paul: Thanks, it is a great program! We are really excited about it and see great potential for growth. We’ve used the ASVB specifically to determine the social return on investment for the TSI and to quantify the social impact created. We had to supply this in a report to the QLD Government as it is a Government funded program, and it helps us justify how we are spending our allocated funds. We are aiming to use the ASVB more over the next year across a number of our programs and we hope to implement the tool into our Annual Report, so we can report back on organisational social impact and hold ourselves accountable.

ASVB Q4: We can’t wait to see the overall impact your organisation is having. Was there anything that surprised you when you first started using the ASVB?
Paul: My assumption was that it wasn’t going to be user friendly, however once I started using the tool I realised it was so easy to use! My perception from using other tools that are available on the market, I believed that it would be quite arduous, but five minutes later I had robust results. If I had used the ASVB Surveys upfront, and not our own, the data would be tailored for the tool and it would make it even easier to use.

ASVB Q5: We are so happy to hear you think it is user friendly, one of our main goals of the ASVB is to make social impact measurement simple. If someone you knew was considering using the ASVB what would you tell them?
Paul: Just get in there and have a go! I would tell them how useful the tool is, it quantifies something we haven’t been able to do in the past, it is easy to use and the ASVB has done the hard work for us so we can just go online and get results.

Paul thank you so much for your time today and sharing your experience of using the ASVB. We wish you all the best with the expansion of the Tenancy Skills Institute roll out.

If you are interested in learning more about InCommunity and their Tenancy Skills Institute please visit their website www.tenancyskills.com.au.

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