Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation
Noemi Avalos, MPH
Evaluation Officer
Sierra Health Foundation/The Center, United States
Madeline Sabatoni, MPA (she/her/hers)
Senior Program Officer
Sierra Health Foundation/The Center
Sacramento, California, United States
Romala Ramkissoon, MBA
Manager
Dignity Health, United States
Maurice Samuels, PhD
Managing Director of Evaluation and Learning
Sierra Health Foundation, United States
Location: White River Ballroom I
Abstract Information: At the Sierra Health Foundation’s Center for Health Program Management (The Center), we empower our funded partners by providing them with the resources and tools needed to improve the health and well-being of communities in California. One example is from our Asthma Mitigation Project (AMP), which provides home visitation, education and environmental remediation services to Medi-Cal populations with disproportionately high rates of asthma. The AMP is in the last year of a three-year external evaluation. A subset of funded partners expressed interest in using photovoice, a participatory method, to capture the personal stories and lives of AMP participants living with asthma and home visitors providing services to participants. The Center made available to partners additional funding to conduct the project, while the external evaluator conducted learning workshops and provided technical assistance to support the implementation of the photovoice activity. This panel presentation is about the story of one funded partner, the external evaluation consultant, and the funder who worked in partnership with each other to incorporate a photovoice activity and culturally responsive practices in the external evaluation. The panel members will share their perspectives about the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned. Audience members will be invited to share their insights, perspectives, and questions. Our intent is to create a conversation among panel members and the audience to build on the lessons shared. As such, we are hoping this panel presentation serves as a catalyst for future stories of partnership among funded partners, evaluators and funders.
Relevance Statement: This panel reflects the conference theme of The Power of Story by reflecting AEA's commitment to ensuring that those who contribute data can obtain benefits from the evaluation. It supports the guiding principles of systematic inquiry; common good and equity; competence; integrity; and respect for people. The panel presentation focuses on participatory data collection methods that complemented a larger external evaluation. These components of the evaluation included photovoice—a participatory action research method— to uplift the lived experience of community members and the knowledge and expertise of our grantee partners to center the work they are doing in their communities, and to empower grantee partners to demonstrate the contributions and outcomes of their work to various community stakeholders such as policymakers and potential funders (Systematic Inquiry; Common Good and Equity). We believe the lessons learned from this project will add to evaluators’ and funders’ knowledge of the use, and value of, participatory methods and culturally responsive practices. In addition, audience members will walk away with a better understanding of the resources (e.g., human, financial, time) needed and the relevant interpersonal competencies evaluators and funders must have to ensure success (Competence; Integrity). The presentation will tell the story about the benefits, challenges, and lessons learned from the perspective of a funded partner, evaluator and funder. The photovoice project was partner-led and in response to partners wanting to capture personal stories and the lives of AMP participants and/or home visitors to show the realities of living with asthma (Respect for People). As written in the abstract, our intent is that the panel members and audience engage in conversation with each other to build on lessons shared by the panelist, hence planting the seed for future stories of collaboration among funded partners, evaluators and funders.
Presenter: Maurice Samuels, PhD – Sierra Health Foundation
Presenter: Madeline Sabatoni, MPA (she/her/hers) – Sierra Health Foundation/The Center
Presenter: Noemi Avalos, MPH – Sierra Health Foundation/The Center
Presenter: Maurice Samuels, PhD – Sierra Health Foundation
Presenter: Romala Ramkissoon, MBA – Dignity Health