Associate Professor Human Development & Family Science Oklahoma State University at Tulsa Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States
In 2022 the Center for Public Life at OSU-Tulsa conducted a program evaluation for a local community foundation’s leadership development program. Program participants were all African American and lived or worked in North Tulsa, a predominantly African American region of the city. The program evaluation used multiple methods, including Ripple Effect Mapping (REM) to explore the short-, medium-, and long-term outcomes of the Foundation's Equity Fellowship and Parent Community Action Team (PCAT) leadership development programs. The evaluation includes data collected from Equity Fellows, Met Cares Foundation staff, and Center for Public Life researchers during a REM workshop. Short-term outcomes identified by participants included learning and applying new skills, such as community-based participatory research, grant writing, policy analysis, and program evaluation. Fellows also described increased access to funding for their community-based initiatives and organizations, and new opportunities that emerged through relationships built during their participation in the programs. Medium-term outcomes included a perceived realignment of funders' priorities towards BIPOC organizations in Tulsa, which Fellows linked to the impact of PCAT. Long-term outcomes discussed by participants included increased space for equity voices in funding and development spaces, as well as the potential for OSU to become a model for other universities in terms of expanding educational opportunities and adjusting approaches to collaborations with community organizations. This evaluation offers insights into the impact of the Foundation's leadership development programs and highlights the importance of investing in equitable leadership development initiatives.
