Using an Empowerment Evaluation Approach with Community-based Programs: Reflections from the Front Line
| Published date | 01 September 2012 |
| Date | 01 September 2012 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1035719X1201200203 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
15
Newell and Graham—Using an empowerment evaluation approach with community-based programs
Using an empowerment evaluation
approach with community-based programs
Reections from the front line
Identifying the most appropriate approach for small-scale
program evaluation remains a vexed issue for both the
researchers who design and implement evaluations, and for the
service provider organisations that seek to ensure that they can
use the ndings as evidence for further program funding. This
article reects on our experiences and the issues encountered in
attempting to undertake useful small-scale, community-based
program evaluation, particularly in regional settings, where the
evaluation capacity, practices and cultures of organisations are
still evolving.
Cognisant of increasing funder–fundee tensions arising from
more externally controlled social program evaluations and
considering varied organisational, program, personnel, funding
and broader political needs and inuences, we have focused
on tailoring evaluation approaches to ensure they are robust,
relevant and responsive to the varied organisational contexts in
which we are endeavouring to strengthen evaluation capacity.
The approach that has emerged over the past eight years ts
most closely with an empowerment evaluation framework
that, although theoretically well suited, has had to be adapted
in order to respect, and work productively with the frequently
competing imperatives of the dierent stakeholders involved.
Introduction
Over recent years we have witnessed a considerable shift in Australia in the way
child and family initiatives are funded. This has involved the devolution of funding
to a wide range of non-government and community-based organisations that have
carriage of implementing and evaluating some quite complex program initiatives
with varied goals, objectives, strategies and accountability requirements. An
example of one such major initiative was the second phase (2004–2009) of the
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Aairs’
Stronger Families and Communities Strategy (SFCS), which distributed over $500
million across hundreds of locally driven projects aimed at ‘giving families, their
children and communities the opportunity to build a better future’ (Australian
Institute of Family Studies 2004, p. 3). A number of organisations based in the
region where our research centre1 is located were successful in securing SFCS
funding, ranging from a few thousand dollars for small-scale projects to almost $4
million for a community-wide needs assessment and subsequent service provision
over five years. Wi th their funding agreements all specifying various evaluation and
reporting requirements, many of these organisations approached our centre for
support with these activities. Over the next few years, we witnessed ongoing demand
Sallie Newell
Anne Graham
Sallie Newell (left) is a Senior Research
Ocer at the Centre for Children and
Young People, Southern Cross University,
Lismore, NSW.
Email: <sallie.newell@scu.edu.au>
Anne Graham (right) is the Director of
the Centre for Children and Young People,
Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.
Email: <anne.graham@scu.edu.au>
Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 12, No. 2, 2012, pp. 15–27
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