Te Whakaruruhau, Waikato Women’s Refuge

Standing alongside wāhine and whānau

Te Whakaruruhau, Waikato Women’s Refuge (WWRT), is a social change agency dedicated to supporting wāhine, empowering them to build resilience, and ensuring the safety of their children. Their team operates a 24/7 crisis service where advocates provide immediate support, personalised safety planning, and wraparound services for women, children, families, and men.

In August 2024, WWRT partnered with ImpactLab to gain a clear picture of their impact. They wanted to understand both the strengths of their services and where they could improve.

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“We wanted to identify where we could improve, where we could highlight the work that we did, because we knew there were a lot of areas that we weren’t getting resources for. We were just getting more and more stretched because of the limits within this community.” — Ruahine Albert, CEO, Te Whakaruruhau

Measuring reach and value

Using ImpactLab’s GoodMeasure product, WWRT were able to see the scale of their impact in concrete terms. From 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024, the report estimated that WWRT supported 2,968 participants and generated $19,241,807 in social value. That equated to a social return of $6.70 for every $1 invested.

The breadth of their family-wide approach also came into sharp focus. Services reached the whole household, including wāhine, tamariki, and tāne, and met needs spanning justice, specialist mental health and addiction support, medical and dental care, benefit and employment assistance, education, residential and food provision, child advocacy, disability support, and safety measures such asalarms and cameras in the home.

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“It validated us and our staff around the reach and breadth of work we did even though we were stretched. It showed that we are actually an organisation that is responsive to the needs of the community, not one limited by contracts.” —Ruahine Albert

Turning insight into action

The GoodMeasure process gave WWRT more than validation. It highlighted the importance of strengthening how they collect and use data. The team is now building systems to record information that was previously uncollected, such as mental health and health data. They also recognised low numbers of men engaging with services. In response, WWRT expanded their male advocate team and are ensuring referrals are directed to them.

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“The ImpactLab report has helped us improve our systems and our response. We always knew that only working with the women and their children wouldn’t break the cycle.” — Ruahine Albert

Continuing to respond to community needs

For WWRT, GoodMeasure was not just a way to calculate social value. It became a tool for recognising the commitment of their kaimahi, validating the breadth of their services, and inspiring stronger systems for the future. By expanding their reach to men and improving their data, WWRT is continuing to meet the needs of their community and create lasting change.

Looking ahead

For WWRT, this report is not the end point. The changes they are making to their systems and services open the door to even deeper insight. By remeasuring in the future, they will be able to see how those changes translate into outcomes for the people they serve, and how their reach to men continues to grow.

At ImpactLab, we see this as the real power of GoodMeasure: creating a cycle of learning, improvement, and validation. WWRT’s journey is one example of how organisations can use evidence to strengthen their work and demonstrate their value to funders, partners, and communities alike.

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