Evaluate Together

STEPS
  1. Determine who wants to learn from the evaluation
  2. Form a representative evaluation team with community members and other interested parties
  3. Determine what participants want to learn from the evaluation
  4. Develop an evaluation plan and evaluation instruments
  5. Conduct the participatory evaluation
  6. Analyze the results with the evaluation team members
  7. Provide feedback to the community
  8. Document and share lessons learned and recommendations for the future
  9. Prepare to reorganize

STEP 9: Prepare to reorganize.

The purpose of most evaluations is not merely to determine whether your efforts have succeeded, but also to help guide future action. If the community believes that there is still work to be done on the same issue, participants can use the results of the evaluation to determine whether they need to reorganize (as in changing the nature and structure of participation). If they determine that a new organizational structure is warranted, they may want to review the community organizing phase (phase two) as they begin a new Community Action Cycle. If they believe that the individuals, groups, and organizations are structured appropriately, they may want to move on to exploring the questions about the CM health issue that emerged during the evaluation and initiate a more profound and directed inquiry. Or they may move more quickly through these two phases and on to the planning phase if they would like to apply what they have learned to developing new strategies.

If the community has made significant advances to the point that it is ready to take on a new health or other issue, or community members have decided that they would like to work on another pressing issue, it is time to return to the beginning of the Community Action Cycle.