Evaluation

Evaluation should be an empowering process because it is about learning from action.  We believe that evaluation processes should form part of all project and programme implementation to help ensure a ‘learning culture’ within organisations – enabling all those involved to understand what is working well and why, and what is not working as well as anticipated and why.  Evaluation shouldn't be an academic exercise but a developmental activity that adds value throughout the life of a project / programme.

Evaluation principles :

• it should be a learning and developmental process;
• the evaluation processes should be democratic and inclusive;
• the processes need to challenge discriminatory and oppressive policies and practice;
• imaginative and creative approaches should be used to encourage participation;
• evaluation should be used to highlight and celebrate success and achievements as well as identifying problems;
• evaluation should be an on-going process.
• qualitative factors need to be emphasised to help illustrate more measurable outputs and outcomes.

We have experience of evaluation at different levels and with a variety of participants and audiences - from small community led groups and voluntary sector projects, to regeneration and health programmes.  We have been involved in:

• formative and summative evaluations at project and programme levels
• developing community based approaches to evaluation
• adaption of existing evaluation frameworks so that they fit a specified purpose
• designing and delivering evaluation training courses.

Evaluation studies include:

• community based evaluations of regeneration programmes such as SRB
• evaluations of action research projects e.g. the JRF Neighbourhood Programme,  Home Office ‘Guide Neighbourhoods’ programme;
• evaluations of multi-agency partnership groups e.g. Leader + programme in the Peak Dales and Moorlands;
• support to projects to develop their own evaluation systems e.g. The Amethyst Project, Wakefield Health Action Zone projects;
• evaluations of national programmes such as NRU Community Participation Programmes;

We have developed a whole series of participatory evaluation exercises and tools –  some of these have been written up into a training programme and manual for Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation.