SociaLens Consulting: Empowering Social Change

Helping organisations achieve their social impact

At SociaLens Consulting, I collaborate with organisations to help them achieve their social impact goals.

My expertise lies in understanding performance and outcomes, utilising data and evidence, engaging with professional and lived expertise and strengthening practice. I support clients in developing effective policy and strategy, ensuring they are equipped to make a meaningful difference in their communities.

As an independent consultant, I specialise in smaller projects and partner with a network of professional expertise in delivering larger projects.

Services

At SociaLens Consulting, I provide a wide range of services designed to support organisations in achieving social change. Offerings include thorough research and evaluation, insightful data and performance analysis, expert report writing, and strategic business case development. Additionally, I can support your MARAM alignment journey, ensuring family violence risk assessment and management practice is effectively embedded in your organisation. Partner with me to leverage my expertise and achieve your social impact goals.

Research, evaluation and program review

I offer research, evaluation, and program review services. My reviews determine the effectiveness and outcomes of programs, providing evidence-based insights to help organisations refine practices, enhance service delivery, and achieve greater social impact. I provide professional, accessible reports that present clear, actionable findings, allowing clients to easily interpret and implement recommendations and communicate their value to the community.

Expert report writing

I offer expert report writing services to help your organisation deliver high-quality reports and written resources tailored for a range of purposes and audiences. Whether you need to communicate the impact of your services or present complex data effectively, I can help craft clear, concise, and impactful documents that meet your needs.

Strategy and business case development

Whether you're developing a strategic plan, outcomes framework, or other key strategic initiative, I collaborate with your board, leadership, and stakeholders to articulate your vision, priorities, direction, and impact. With extensive experience in government business case development, I prepare evidence-based proposals supported by robust financial and service system modeling, ensuring your funding requests are well-substantiated.

Strengthening capture and use of data

I'm here to help your organisation with capturing and analysing administrative and operational data to enhance understanding of client trends, measure service outcomes, and assess organisational impact. My expertise ensures that data-driven insights supplement professional expertise and client experience and lead to informed decision-making and improved performance.

Supporting MARAM alignment

I'm here to help your organisation on its MARAM alignment journey. Whether you're just starting to plan or looking to review and improve your current practices, I can support you in understanding your progress and planning the next steps. Let's work together to make your MARAM implementation smooth and effective.

Meet Shasta

I’m deeply fascinated by complex systems that deal with people – how those systems operate, people’s experience of them, and how they can be strengthened. My commitment lies in ensuring that the voices and experiences of communities are at the heart of everything I do.

Prior to establishing SociaLens Consulting, I held multiple senior executive positions in the justice and social services portfolios, as part of a more than 20-year public service career. With a background in psychology and a PhD in Criminology focused on youth offending and police diversion, my professional journey has been both diverse and impactful.

My work has encompassed research and evaluation, data analysis and modelling, implementation monitoring, strategy, policy, program design, and engagement. I take great pride in weaving together diverse perspectives and different forms of evidence to create clear pathways for change.

I am MARAM trained and continue to contribute to the family violence sector through my role as a board director for a family violence refuge.

Examples of my work prior to establishing SociaLens Consulting include:

Developing a framework for monitoring progress and impact under the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032 for the national Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission
Leading an agreement-making process between Dhelk Dja Koori Caucus and Victorian government departments for their contributions to the second action plan under the Dhelk Dja Safe Our Way family violence agreement
Heading the Victorian Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor’s Office and delivering eight comprehensive reports to government, including an independent legislative review of the Family Violence Information Sharing Scheme and family violence risk assessment and management framework
Leading the development and implementation of a reform strategy for Victoria’s women’s prison system that resulted in significant policy, practice and infrastructure improvements
Delivering an evidence-based infrastructure and service strategy, and suite of funding submissions for the Victorian corrections system resulting in significant investment ($1.8b) in the 2019-20 State Budget
Proudly championing lived experience inclusion by embedding victim-survivor expertise in the work of the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor’s Office and Family Safety Victoria’s research and evaluation program, and operating Victoria’s Victim Survivor Advisor Council (VSAC)
Leading the validation and recalibration of Corrections Victoria’s risk assessment tool
Publishing research on acquired brain injury and intellectual disability in Victoria’s prison system

From my clients

See what some of my clients are saying about my services:

Shasta and I first met while I served as Deputy Chair of the Victim Survivors' Advisory Council, and she was Director at the Family Violence Reform Implementation Monitor's (FVRIM) office. I was immediately struck by Shasta's dedication to improving the lives of those affected by family violence and her extraordinary ability to connect with individuals who have faced such trauma. Shasta's capacity to build rapport with people, even in the most challenging circumstances, is a testament to her exceptional skills and genuine empathy. Shasta consistently sought out opportunities for victim-survivors to share their experiences directly with her office in order to understand their experience and enhance the services and systems they rely on. I was deeply impressed by Shasta's strengths-based approach to this work, always recognising the resilience, wisdom, and intelligence of victim-survivors. Shasta's skill in listening to people with lived experience and transforming those experiences and insights into concrete reports and recommendations exemplifies her proficiency in knowledge translation. I know she will continue to be committed to increasing the engagement and influence of people with lived experience in her work.