EEE Week: Laura Downey on Community-Based Participatory Research Logic Models

Hi! This is Laura Downey with Mississippi State University Extension Service. In my job as an evaluation specialist, I commonly receive requests to help colleagues develop a program logic model. I am always thankful when I receive such a request early in the program development process. So, I was delighted a few weeks ago when academic and community colleagues asked me to facilitate the development of a logic model for a grant proposing to use a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to evaluate a statewide health policy. For those of you who are not familiar with CBPR, it is a collaborative research approach designed to ensure participation by communities throughout the research process.

As I began to assemble resources to inform this group’s CBPR logic model, I discovered a Conceptual Logic Model for CBPR available on the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine, Center for Participatory Research, website.

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Rad Resource:

What looked like a simple conceptual logic model at first glance was actually a web-based tool complete with metrics and measures (instrument) to assess CBPR processes and outcomes. Over 50 instruments related to the most common concepts in CBPR, concepts such as organizational capacity; group relational dynamics; empowerment; and community capacity are profiled and available through this tool. The profile includes the instrument name; a link to original source; the number of items in the instrument; concept(s) original assessed; reliability; validity; and identification of the population created with.

With great ease, I was able to download surveys to measure those CBPR concepts in the logic model that were relevant to the group I was assisting. Given the policy-focus of that specific project, I explored those measures related to policy impact.

Hot Tip:

Even if you do not typically take a CBPR approach to program development, implementation, and/or evaluation, the CBPR Conceptual Logic Model website might have a resource relevant to your current or future evaluation work.

The American Evaluation Association is celebrating Extension Education Evaluation (EEE) TIG Week with our colleagues in the EEE Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to aea365 come from our EEE TIG 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.