Program Evaluation Toolkit for Harm Reduction Organizations
Carrying out an evaluation is a group project, and establishing an active and involved evaluation team is a key first step. To implement an inclusive and participatory program evaluation process, the community must be invited to contribute to the evaluation planning in a meaningful way. Regardless of the scope or size of your harm reduction program evaluation, an evaluation team can ensure that your evaluation process is grounded in community voice and the perspectives of PWUD.
Often the individuals who are invited to be a part of an evaluation team are those with a vested interest in the results of the evaluation and its impact on your program and the drug user community. This group could include funders, project staff, working group members, clients, partner agencies, and any others who are invested in the strengthening and continued sustainability of the program. Members of the evaluation team can be engaged in the process in the following ways:
Informing
Sharing regular updates about the progress of the evaluation process.
Consulting
Seeking out feedback on the evaluation plan design, development, and implementation.
Involving
Ensuring the integration of insights and concerns throughout the evaluation process.
Collaborating
Looking to the evaluation team for advice and innovative solutions and incorporating recommendations to the extent possible.
Empowering
Placing the final decision making in the hands of the evaluation team and implementing what they decide.
For those programs that have established an evaluation team in the past for a previous evaluation, it may be worthwhile to re-engage individuals, or even re-activate the full group, to contribute to this effort.
For the programs that are establishing an evaluation team for the first time, now is the time to brainstorm! When brainstorming who should be invited to join the program evaluation team, it is helpful to start by drafting a list of as many people as you can. Think about those who are in some way touched by the program or impacted by the work.
Specifically, you may want to consider:
To ensure that you are casting a wide net, consider inviting colleagues who work on different pieces of the program to also contribute to this brainstorming exercise. There is no magic size when it comes to building an evaluation team. The size of the team should instead depend on what is needed to include a diverse range of perspectives in the evaluation process. As a harm reduction program, you also need to work out how you will recruit and engage PWUD as members of the evaluation team, and how you will connect everyone who is new to evaluation with the tools, resources, and/or mentorship they may need to support their full contribution to the process.
Below are some resources on how to effectively engage community in the evaluation process:
