The Assisting Communities through Direct Connection (ACDC) Project is a novel approach to understanding and supporting mental health and wellbeing in Australia. Since 2021, in 27 communities across all states and territories, teams of two, three or four people – referred to as ‘People Connectors’ – knocked on doors to invite Householders to have a conversation about their mental health and wellbeing.

In Round Three (2023–2024), the role of the People Connectors was expanded, so they were more involved in stakeholder engagement with community services before and during doorknocking. They spread awareness of the ACDC Project in their local communities through meetings with stakeholders, presentations, social media posts, radio station segments, and distributing posters. They also attended community events and organised workshops and BBQs. People Connectors built strong referral relationships with services. People Connector teams in Round Three also doorknocked in their communities for a longer period, compared to previous rounds.

This report builds off the previous evaluation report for the ACDC Project – ‘Doorknocking for mental health: evaluating a novel outreach approach for addressing mental health’ (the Round Two Report). This report should be considered as an Addendum to the Round Two Report, in providing updated findings and learnings from Round Three, without covering the same level of detail that was provided in the Round Two report.