Stories are the foundation of everything: program design and cultural evaluation methods in three Indigenous organizations across Hawai'i

Four culturally based Indigenous organizations in Hawai'i collaborated with a local Foundation to develop and implement SenseMaker as a story-based evaluation tool to better understand how connecting to land, place, self, and community improves well-being in culture-based programs. Native Hawaiian stories and histories guide each organization. The evaluation collaboration measured and aggregated each organization's impact to see the overall picture of impact. The qualitative, story-based collection technique and a self-signifying component of SenseMaker were culturally relevant in Hawai'i, but implementation was complex. The presentation shares the challenges and gains from the process and focuses on the role of narratives in Indigenous program design and evaluation. Preliminary statistics from the ongoing SenseMaker platform collaboration are now accessible.