158 - Radically Radicle - The Many Levels of Community Engagement: Insights and Lessons Learned from the Artists of Color Unite! (AOCU) "Community Evaluators"

Abstract Information: Community participation in the evaluation process is a natural artifact of Culturally Responsive and Equitable evaluation practice (CREE). However, on the CREE spectrum, “there are levels to this” (Meek Mill, 2013). At one level, tokenistic engagement approaches such as placation are more integrative than “palliative” approaches such as informing and consultation (Arnstein, 2019). However, they are far less authentic and human-centered than approaches that are more proximal to the essence of CREE as both a philosophical stance and a methodological approach (Moss, et al, 2023). Further still, liberatory engagement, which seeks to “actualize freedom from dominant norms, practices, and ideals” and ultimately “free all of humanity from the yoke of dominant culture oppression…”(Peak, 2020) is at a level that many still regard as aspirational, even as some feverishly work to normalize its approach. Somewhere, far removed from the tokenistic, and nowhere near the aspirational, our evaluation team, Educa Consulting, partnered with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving (Foundation) and its community-based advisory group known as the Artists of Color Unite! (AOCU!). What began in the first phase of this work as a collaborative, developmental evaluation, grew toward a more deeply collaborative, co-creational partnership that sought to center the voices of the community as co-evaluators (Community Evaluators - CEs). Our proposed panel of CEs and Educa Consulting team members will reflect on that process and lessons learned. The AOCU! came together as a result of the Foundation’s response to the community’s call for their voices to be integrated into decision making concerning the arts (programming, funding, etc.). Our partnership was forged from a collective desire to reimagine and rebuild a Greater Hartford Arts Ecosystem that is more reflective of the Hartford Community: its creatives, its patrons, and its collective “hartbeat”. The AOCU!’s partnership was part of the Foundation’s ongoing work in the participatory grant-making space. In the first phase of this work our evaluation team worked closely with the AOCU! as we refined the evaluation design, conducted the evaluation, and developed dissemination materials. By the second phase of this work, our relationship with AOCU! and its evaluation subcommittee had developed from one of transparent consultation to that of partnership and occasional delegated power. Moreover, the AOCU! frequently discussed the equity implications of committing to inclusive, collaborative, work. As a result, Educa Consulting agreed to hold space for planning and co-creating a contextually relevant, and responsive evaluation plan to reflect, honor and incorporate the learnings and wisdom that our team uncovered in the first phase of the evaluation engagement. It was also during this phase of the work that our team proposed to employ the Community Evaluator Approach to co-create the evaluation plan that would guide the third phase of this work. A subset of community evaluators (up to three) and member(s) of the Educa Consulting team (up to two), propose to discuss community engagement in evaluative practice. Reflecting on our journey, we will discuss lessons learned, and emergent themes around identity, trust-building, and perceptions of scarcity in the arts space.