A new study measuring the social impact of religious organisations in Logan has begun.
The “audit”, run by international Christian organisation NAYBA, will aim to put a “dollar value” on the impact of faith-based organisations.
The man who kickstarted the audit of Logan, Colin Stoodley from Underwood, said the report would also help find the gaps in services provided to the community.
“A report like this, with a bit of thoughtful analysis, would help people who are motivated to say: ‘we’re doing good work in all these areas, but here’s an area that we’re missing and we can focus now on that’,” Mr Stoodley said.
He said the report would be a valuable tool for the local council to source funding from the state and federal governments to support community initiatives.
According to NAYBA, the goal of these audits is to provide “grassroots evidence that faith is a force for good”.
NAYBA hopes the reports will enable churches to “increase their influence, collaboration and resources for community transformation”, according to its website.
Mr Stoodley said the audit would be inclusive of all religions.
“We know that there are a lot of Logan residents doing some remarkable stuff to help people with issues related to the cost of living, to homelessness, to health, schooling – you name it,” he said.
“We have people from all over the city involved in excellent work and they come from different faith-based backgrounds. Many of course are Christian, but there are also Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist – all of them who are involved in doing things for our city.”
A 2022 audit of the Gold Coast found its religious institutions and not-for-profits had a social impact worth $43 million that year.
There were more than 200 community services being delivered by faith groups, addressing 13 of the greatest social needs in the region.
The Logan report is expected to be released sometime in 2026.
My Loodley and local churches helped raise $10,000 – about half the full cost – to launch the audit of Logan.
“This will be such a valuable tool. We’ll earn our money back hundreds of different ways,” he said.
Faith organisations that want to sign up for the audit can do so here.
