Organizational Learning & Evaluation Capacity Building
Jan Fields, EdD PhD (he/him/his)
Program Evaluator
Michigan DHHS
Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States
Chris Lysy, MA
Information Designer
Fresh Spectrum, United States
Minda Reed, MD, MPH
Health Scientist/Evaluation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States
Kendra Wilson, DrPH, MS (she/her/hers)
Evaluation Fellow
CDC, United States
Nida Ali, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers)
Health Scientist/Evaluation Officer
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States
Location: White River Ballroom D
Abstract Information: To assess and improve the implementation, effectiveness, and equity of programs, federal funding recipients are asked to prioritize evaluation. Learning and networking opportunities for evaluators can facilitate storytelling, knowledge sharing, and capacity building. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement includes support for peer-to-peer learning opportunities on various topics including evaluation and tailored technical assistance and capacity building from an assigned CDC evaluation officer. In addition to the guidance and resources that CDC evaluation officers provided to OD2A recipients, peer-to-peer learning opportunities allow recipients to share their unique stories, in their own words, in ways that build community among recipient evaluators. The stories that emerge from dialogue within the community promote sharing of innovative evaluation approaches, resources, and skills, thereby allowing recipients to better solve programmatic challenges independently, and these peer-to-peer learning opportunities can help foster sustained evaluation practice. During this roundtable session, OD2A recipients leading peer-to-peer efforts for evaluation and CDC evaluation officers will discuss how to: 1) identify opportunities to build community and capacity, 2) build a trusted community among evaluators exploring similar topics and experiencing similar challenges, and 3) build topical evaluation capacity through peer-to-peer exchanges. The session will conclude with stories of OD2A evaluation successes and lessons learned, suggestions for applying this peer-to-peer approach in diverse settings, and additional resource sharing.
Relevance Statement: Peer-to-peer (P2P) learning gained early popularity in the field of education, promoting the utility of learning from peers in similar situations who may be easier to relate to and trust. P2P learning efforts can take many forms. In the context of evaluation, they often materialize in the form of communities of practice (CoPs), defined as “a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis.”1 CoPs are participatory and collaborative by nature; members often share practice and mutually engage with one another. CoPs provide access to resources and expertise that may otherwise be scarce or inaccessible in certain contexts. As evaluators operate in environments with limited resources and competing demands, opportunities to learn from and reflect with peers can be helpful. P2P learning efforts also provide meaningful opportunities for evaluation capacity building. Through P2P learning opportunities, learning occurs through the observation and imitation of others (i.e., social learning). It relies on “change agents” who engage in effective practice from whom community members can gain practical knowledge, resulting in improvement and innovation of practice. Increase in evaluation capacity can also filter up to the organizational level, resulting in improved capacity to use as well as do evaluations. Finally, evaluation communities of practice offer space for peer-to-peer exchanges that, in turn, can result in introspection as well as broader consideration of partners and communities impacted by evaluation. Ultimately, communities of practice can lead to adoption of evaluation practices that are implemented equitably with respect to methods, data sharing, implications of findings for affected communities, and recommended solutions. Evaluators in Michigan, an Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) program recipient, lead a virtual evaluation CoP and assess the needs of their evaluation community by conducting monthly webinars, workshops, and networking sessions. They also provide timely and topically relevant resources via an interactive web-based platform to meet identified needs. Through these interactive sessions, facilitators foster an environment that encourages storytelling among members to capture evaluation successes, barriers and facilitators to evaluation and a broader dialogue about evaluation methods and techniques. The CoP paired with technical assistance from CDC evaluation officers (EOs) build and support recipients’ evaluation capacity and provide opportunities for collaboration. EOs connect recipients exploring similar topics and experiencing similar challenges, fostering additional storytelling and learning among peers. This roundtable will discuss: 1. How we can identify opportunities to build community and capacity 2. How we, as evaluators, can foster ongoing learning and promote the sharing of untold stories 3. How do we build a trusted community among evaluators exploring similar topics and experiencing similar challenges? 4. How do we build topical evaluation capacity through peer-to-peer exchanges? The session will conclude with stories of OD2A evaluation successes and lessons learned along with suggestions for applying this approach in diverse settings.