105 - Evaluators as advocates: Examining opportunities to authentically engage with funders, interveners, and community.

Abstract Information: As evaluators we make choices every day that can affect the story we tell about the nature and quality of how work is being done in and by a variety of communities. In order for our stories to be genuine and meaningful, our methods should seek to maximize authentic efforts to engage with the community so that the story we tell is theirs. It’s our obligation as evaluators to center community voices and ensure that we do not exploit or seek our own interests. Practical, political, cultural, social, economic, and resource dynamics are real and these “pressures to comply” or conform must be recognized and managed by evaluators so that the story we tell is true and the consequences beneficial. To be authentic, our storytelling about others must be recognizable to them as being their own reflecting their cultural and individual identities. Evaluation is hard work which goes beyond merely measuring and counting; authentic evaluation is a matter of epistemological, ontological, axiological, and anthropological integrity with the community whose story we capture and share. Capturing authentic stories and engaging with communities in this way requires thoughtful planning and capacity from the evaluator, intervenor and community. Developing mechanisms for ongoing engagement and sustainable CRE approaches also presents challenges for today’s nonprofits who experience high staff turnover, inadequate funding for evaluation or administrative support positions, and grant compliance/reporting metrics that stretch capacity and do not fully capture the work being done or the true story of impact. For this poster presentation participants will hear from an internal evaluation perspective about specific examples where advocacy has been an essential aspect of evaluation and data collection efforts that are responsive to staff and community strengths, needs, and aspirations. Participants will examine and discuss ways in which evaluators can advocate with the community, interveners, and funders considering current structures, challenges, funding mechanisms and other systemic barriers encountered in the work.

Relevance Statement: Many funding opportunities have come with an exhaustive list of compliance measures, prescriptive metrics and goals that can not capture the authentic story of the work being done on the ground or its impact. Nonprofit staff have experienced burnout and lack of capacity to keep up with sometimes quite artificial data to collect for reporting requirements. These competing priorities can also overburden staff to engage in participatory evaluation efforts. Many communities of color have become exhausted with numerous research and evaluation efforts, some of which have been exploitative and benefit the researcher rather than the community interest. To ensure evaluation practices are sound, community contextualized, culturally responsive, and participatory, community engagement and participation is essential. Also central to being true to the story and reflecting the voice of the community is to ensure we understand and appreciate community cultural wealth and worldview and prioritize the community benefit over our own. This can be challenging when funding or compliance requirements seek an external or outside interest rather than the community interest. It is important for evaluators to seek the concerns, perspectives, and priorities of the community and ensure “interventions” are community-driven efforts to “”rewrite the script” and tell a different, better story. Cultural responsiveness, appreciation and genuine relationships are essential to engaging communities in ways that are authentic and meaningful and which result in stories from community voices that are valid and inform and drive appropriate and acceptable action including evaluation practice. There are many theoretical frameworks and approaches that speak to the importance of this and its value in evaluation (e.g., Frierson, Hood & Hughes, 2002; Hall & Hood, 2005; Kirkhart, 2005). AEA guiding principles of systematic Inquiry, competence, respect for people, integrity and common good and equity align within this discussion and exploration of how advocacy and engagement with and for community can provide more valid storytelling through evaluation. During this session, the presenter and participants will discuss personal perspectives and experiences and endeavor to discover and create ways in which evaluators can educate and advocate with funders, interveners, and communities to ensure evaluation and data practices are based on, and result in authentic stories about what is happening and what difference it makes. Case scenarios, personal dispositions and participant experience will be integrated into the session to explore ideas. In conclusion, evaluators have a responsibility to leverage the positionality and power they hold to advocate for justice and authenticity in the work they do. The information we collect and analyze must be relevant to the participants in the action we evaluate and the conclusions concerning affect/effect must be framed by the people from whom that information is obtained if our evaluation is to be technically sound as well as ethical, lead to the improvement of the work we evaluate and contribute to the betterment of the quality of people’s lives.