36 - One (or more) degree removed: Incorporating community voice into evaluations at the organization level

Abstract Information: Many evaluations are of initiatives that are at the organization or systems level, as opposed to direct interventions for communities, clients, or patients. For example, an evaluator may be tasked with evaluating a learning community where health centers building their internal capabilities related health care transformation or a multi-site investment that tries to prompt the Cooperative Extension System to change its organizational policies and practices to better support community-driven equity work. While these efforts ultimately intend to improve patient care or benefit community members, interventions are directed at internal levers that often are not visible to these intended beneficiaries. Meanwhile, evaluators that aim to live into values of more equitable evaluation are increasingly seeking to incorporate community voice into their work. We are in positions to encourage partners (i.e., funders, implementers) to deepen conversations on equitable distribution of funds and equitable service delivery. However, direct data collection from the community is not always a feasible approach for a variety of reasons. The evaluation may not have the resources to collect such data, relationships and trust may not exist between the evaluators and the community served to ensure accurate data collection, and community members may have varying levels of interest in organizational practices. This Birds of a Feather session will address considerations for incorporating community voice into evaluations of initiatives that indirectly, rather than directly, impact community members. Facilitators will share example experiences and challenges encountered before exploring and discussing participants' experiences and lessons grappling with this tension. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect and leave with potential strategies for more equitable evaluation practice in organizational-level evaluations.