Elevating Participation to Partnership: Prioritizing Lived Experience in Evaluation

Abstract Information: As issues of equity and power dynamics are raised within the field of evaluation, stakeholder voice and involvement are becoming increasingly important aspects of program evaluation. However, common stakeholder engagement efforts that frame the goal of stakeholder involvement as ‘empowering’ or ‘giving voice’ to marginalized or oppressed groups can be problematic. The language continues to situate power in the hands of the professional evaluator who ‘invites’ participation and makes decisions for stakeholders based on his/her/their interpretation of stakeholders’ experiences, rather than recognizing their already existing agency. Additionally, evaluators sometimes use knowledge and models to navigate stakeholder involvement that focus on ways to transform those individuals or organizations, which can (unknowingly) perpetuate an epistemological oppression.

The BIPOC Arts Network and Fund (BANF) - a multi-year initiative (funded by Houston Endowment and the Ford Foundation’s America’s Cultural Treasures initiative) working to revolutionize arts funding and create an arts ecosystem that empowers BIPOC artists/organizations to connect, collaborate, and create – is employing an evaluation that shifts the evaluator/stakeholder power dynamic and centers voices of the traditionally marginalized communities.

The evaluation approach engages Community Storytellers – local BIPOC artists and creatives knowledgeable about and engaged in the Houston arts community with whom the BANF vision resonates - in the role traditionally occupied by a ‘privileged knower.’ These Community Storytellers are responsible for documenting and codifying the impact of BANF’s work and the successes of their grantees. To do this work, the Community Storytellers are supported by Working Partner, an evaluation consulting firm, which provides evaluation training and methodological and facilitation supports. Additionally, the Community Storytellers are utilizing an Outcome Harvesting approach to give BANF grantees greater agency in identifying outcomes that are meaningful to them.

This Roundtable presentation will discuss the evaluation process to date and invite discussion from the audience about: How this approach differs from participatory or empowerment approaches, if at all; How altering the roles and relationships between the Storytellers and the evaluators increases equity in the evaluation; and the effect that centering equity in the evaluation approach has for issues of reliability and validity.