Process F. Use & Improve

Evaluation lessons can be used in multiple, mutually beneficial ways to enhance your program, organization, partnerships, and community relationships. For organizations aiming to center lifelong learning, one benefit of evaluation is using the lessons learned to support a cycle of co-creation, improvement, and increased relevance of EE programming. The eeVAL processes often surface strategies that are effective in embracing multiple perspectives and addressing power dynamics; these can be helpful when applied to an organization more broadly.

eeVAL Tips for Use and Improvement

F1. Use Findings with Fidelity 
Honor the co-creation process and apply lessons learned from the evaluation. This includes revisiting the original intent of the evaluation, promises made regarding confidentiality, and expectations of the co-creation process (e.g., co-authorship). This approach will build trust among partners, participants, and the community being served.

F2. Reflect and Celebrate
Bring together your colleagues, program teams, partners, participants, and funders to celebrate progress toward program outcomes, as well as reflect on your evaluation experience. Inform future evaluations by duplicating what worked well and applying new approaches to address any concerns or weaknesses that surfaced.

F3. Deepen Your eeVAL Practice
Participate in workshops and events that explicitly center on equitable evaluation principles. Create or join learning communities with colleagues and partner organizations to share your work and expand your practice of eeVAL. Join the NAAEE’s eePRO Research and Evaluation Group to share your eeVAL practice.

F4. Contribute to a Culture of Evaluation
Identify ways to integrate and promote equity in organizational strategic planning, programming, policies, and evaluation. Consider applying strategies that were effective in your evaluation at a broader scale. For example, if using an anonymous feedback box effectively identified concerns held by program educators or youth participants, your organization might consider adopting this evaluation strategy as part of your organization’s policies and practices going forward.

F5. Maintain New Connections
In your evaluation process, you likely met individuals who provided insights and support for your programs.  In what ways can you continue to engage their expertise with compensation? This can take many forms, including paid staffing and leadership opportunities, short-term consultations, formal partnership agreements, opportunities to promote their business or service, sponsored invitations to deliver talks, and additional ways that would help keep them engaged.

Consult these resources that support continuous improvement:

• Share Your Story showcases reports from organizations that infused eeVAL practices and culturally responsive and equitable framing into their work.
• The W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Practice Guide Series on Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity: A Tool Kit for Practitioners (2024). See Equitable Evaluation Practices for Place-Based Development, pp. 85-87.