The Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (SFCS) 2000-2004 was designed to help build family and community capacity to deal with challenges and take advantage of opportunities, with a special focus on those at-risk of social, economic and geographic isolation. It consisted of seven community-based linked initiatives that provided funding and support for projects in the community and six broader initiatives. The community-based linked initiatives, which were the focus of the evaluation, provided nearly $80 million in direct funding to 635 projects, ranging from under $1,000 to over $1,000,000, together with support from the Department to assist organisations to develop proposals and implement projects. Projects focusing on Indigenous families and communities received 26% of the funding allocated through these initiatives.

In 2007 the evaluation was awarded the Best Evaluation Study Award of the Australasian Evaluation Society.

The evaluation produced an overall final report, issues papers addressing key principles, case study reports of particular projects, funding initiatives or targeted regions, and newsletters