About CoAct: Innovation

We are proud of our reputation as strong agents of change – in the sector, in local areas across the country and most importantly, in people’s lives. 

At CoAct, partnerships are the key to success. We work together with our service partners, like-minded community services organisations and other research teams to help find new insights, innovations and ways to better help our communities. 

Innovation with impact

Innovation was the spark that created CoAct. We work closely with local communities to find new ways to help and discover better ways of delivering and funding existing services. Learn more about the fantastic work being delivered by CoAct service partners across Australia. Discover our impact 

Got an idea?

If you have an idea for a pilot program or research project that could improve our service and make an impact in communities across Australia, then we would love to hear from you. Get in touch via [email protected].

Intensive Case Management (ICM) provides a greater opportunity to help the highly disadvantaged or very long-term unemployed customers move into sustainable employment. This model favoured by CoAct allows targeted service delivery with broad measurable impact that can be replicated at scale across disadvantaged community groups. 

CoAct has a proven track record of expertise in working with disadvantaged community groups. Our ICM programs have always differed from mainstream employment services by providing greater flexibility and more intensive support for job seekers. 

Our ICM programs invested at the front end to deliver a highly intensive, individualised service focused on securing sustainable employment, complimentary to individual circumstances. 

This framework enables us to work with job seekers without the constraints of prescribed contact regimes, enhancing engagement and ultimately generating higher outcome levels. 

ICM reinforces CoAct’s values and approaches to working with customers, delivering a service that works with customer strengths, not focusing on their weaknesses, motivating not coercing and treating customers as individuals with specific needs. 

ARC Grant: “Who You Know or Where You Go? The Role of Formal and Informal Networks in Finding Employment and Maintaining Wellbeing”

New insights on social networks to inform wellbeing and labour market outcomes for unemployed Australians  

CoAct was successful in winning a grant through the Australian Research Council (ARC) to undertake a landmark study of how informal and formal networks of unemployed Australians affect their odds of gaining employment.  

The four-year research collaboration between CoAct and researchers at the University of Sydney, the University of Queensland and the University of Wollongong was Australia’s first major study of the networking practices and associated job search experiences of unemployed Australians. 

In the wake of the past spotlights on the effectiveness of government-funded employment services like jobactive, these new insights have been highly beneficial in informing future policy and service delivery, as well as increasing job seeker wellbeing and outcomes.  

Until now, little was known about what kinds of networks (formal and informal) or what network characteristics (their size, strength and diversity) are significant for the more disadvantaged job seekers. 

We now have data that shows larger, stronger and more diverse formal and informal networks are crucial in finding work and maintaining wellbeing. They are a valuable resource for the unemployed and are associated with superior employment outcomes.