Building Capacity for Participatory Evaluation Within Community Initiatives

Participatory evaluation is the process by which those doing the work contribute to understanding and improving it. In the context of community initiatives, this often involves co-production of knowledgelocal people and outside evaluators sharing responsibility for gathering data and interpreting it...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of prevention & intervention in the community 2003-11, Vol.26 (2), p.21-36
Main Authors: Fawcett, Stephen B., Boothroyd, Renée, Schultz, Jerry A., Francisco, Vincent T., Carson, Valorie, Bremby, Roderick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capacity building
Community Change
Community Development
community initiatives
Community Involvement
Community Organizations
Intervention
logic model
Program Evaluation
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Summary:Participatory evaluation is the process by which those doing the work contribute to understanding and improving it. In the context of community initiatives, this often involves co-production of knowledgelocal people and outside evaluators sharing responsibility for gathering data and interpreting its meaning. We outline a six-component framework for participatory evaluation: (a) Naming and framing the problem/goal to be addressed, (b) Developing a logic model (or theory of practice) for how to achieve success, (c) Identifying evaluation questions and appropriate methods, (d) Documenting the intervention and its effects, (e) Making sense of the data, and (f) Using the information to celebrate and make adjustments. Incorporating examples from different community initiatives, we examine how to support and build capacity for participatory evaluation. To help guide the collaborative work of participatory evaluation among community members and outside evaluators, we outline orienting questions (e.g., what are we seeing?) and core activities (e.g., characterizing the data) for each component, and describe Internet-based supports to help reflect and act on what we see. Finally, we discuss challenges, benefits, and opportunities in this approach to supporting and building capacity for participatory evaluation within community initiatives for health and development.
ISSN:1085-2352
1540-7330
DOI:10.1300/J005v26n02_03