Welcome to the Chicagoland Evaluation Association’s (CEA) week of AEA365. My name is Leah Christina Neubauer and I am CEA President. CEA is back for its second featured week of AEA 365. **Our first week was in November of 2013.
I hope that this early January CEA week serves to increase your knowledge of CEA member evaluation practice and interests.
Hot Tip: CEA evaluators work in a variety of evaluation settings and have a lot to share. This week, you’ll learn about AEA local affiliate resources, evaluation within the Chicago public schools, surveys in community-based health settings, online activity logs in school-based programs, a Latino-focused initiative in evaluation and health academic-community partnerships, and evaluation inside and outside of the MPH classroom walls.
Lesson Learned: Affiliates have been my gateway into the evaluator, evaluation and AEA worlds. And, as someone from the field of adult and continuing education, I view local affiliates as homegrown mechanisms that can promote various types of learning and growing within and among evaluators.
Quite simply, affiliates (like AEA) provide numerous opportunities for professional development and for building professional relationships. Affiliates can also provide additional localized resources, historical information, and networking opportunities with folks doing evaluation (who may not be AEA members).
So, in the spirit of learning and of New Year’s resolutions, I ask my fellow evaluators:
How do you plan to learn, grow and develop in this coming year?
Whatever your resolution(s), consider tapping into a local AEA affiliate as one strategy to enrich your professional learning and growing as an evaluator in 2014.
Rad Resource #1: CEA Affiliate Website = Chicago-Related Evaluator Information. Are you in the Chicagoland Area, looking to collaborate with someone based in Chicago, or interested in our affiliate work? Check out the CEA website which includes information on CEA activities, committees and our members.
Rad Resource #2: AEA Affiliates = Localized Evaluator/Evaluation Opportunities. Are you involved in your local AEA affiliate? A list of affiliates, contact information, websites, conference archives, helpful links and a variety of evaluation websites can be found here.
Rad Resource #3: Local Affiliate Collaborative = Collection of Brilliant Affiliate Leaders/Resources. When I became CEA President, I welcomed the opportunity to join folks on the Local Affiliate Collaborative Steering Committee. In this group, I have found community, support, mentorship, and a WEALTH of resources and expertise. The members and their respective AEA affiliates represent decades of evaluation and AEA leadership experience. Check out the website and resources here.
The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Chicagoland Evaluation Association (CEA) Affiliate Week. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from CEA members. Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org. aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.