233 - Centering the Latinx/E Community Voices using Latcrit and Participatory Practices Across the Evaluation Process

Abstract Information: As evaluators working with the Latinx/e community, we are bound by external and internal forces that restrict us from generating democratic and sustainable programs for Latinxs/es. One of these forces is the cultural relevancy of programs in the daily life of Latinxs/es. Sometimes it is difficult to know how to effectively integrate participatory and culturally responsive practices into all the aspects of our evaluations and research. The panelists will share their diverse experiences and insights into collaborating with partners to create effective, inclusive, and responsive programs with the Latinx/e community. The panel aims to explore participatory practices that can be used across all stages of the evaluation process. We will explore critical theories in evaluation, including Culturally Responsive Evaluation and the Pedagogy of Evaluation (Patton, 2017). The first panelist will discuss the importance of building community partnerships that are inclusive of diverse representation, organic leaders, and community decision-makers. The panelist will focus on ways to leverage these diverse perspectives during the first stages of the evaluation process and gain insight into the context of the community: needs, assets, networks, use of private and public spaces, and ways communities manifest their agency. Placemaking theory and asset-based scholarship will guide this work and help co-create new possibilities and an understanding of the complexity of Latinx/e communities. The second panelist will focus on building rapport and developing meaningful relationships with the community through a critical pedagogical approach that highlights the voices of the community using games, poems, and theater in various artistic and community-based activities. With the intention to engage in dialogue about their needs and aspirations with the community. This approach is based on the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, who believed in the importance of the emancipation of communities through education. The third panelist will share about their work evaluating a community-led, family-based intervention aimed at reducing stress due to structural racism among Latinx/e immigrant families. The panelist will talk about further developing a LatCrit approach for best practices when negotiating equitable and sustainable partnerships that prioritize the needs of the community. Attendees will be engaging with the panelists about their experiences and insights. They will also gain valuable knowledge and tools for creating sustainable programs that promote equity, inclusion, and social justice for the Latinx/e communities. Throughout the panel, we will highlight the importance of centering the voices and needs of communities, building partnerships that are equitable and sustainable, allowing the community to take the lead, and sustaining evaluation practices. We hold at the center of this work that evaluators should honor the community’s values and points of view about their own needs. We believe it is impossible to cultivate trust and community empowerment using only the current tools, which have fallen short or failed us in the past, but that we must open new spaces for tools of liberation in the evaluation field.