Hello Reader! I am Michelle Eckman, the Director of Evaluation for Mass Audubon, a Massachusetts-wide conservation organization. I am proud to be the first full-time internal evaluator of this organization. Before this role, I evaluated an environmental education program for my master’s thesis and have spent the past 20+ years as an environmental educator and administrator.
I recognize not all conservation/environmental organizations are going to invest in an internal evaluator. I have the luxury of working shoulder to shoulder with our educators to ensure program outcomes are being met, collaborating with them to make programs as effective as possible. I recognize that environmental education administrators in other organizations may not be fortunate enough to focus solely on developing a culture and set of tools and processes for evaluation with their education team. Knowing that many of my colleagues lack such time and/or financial resources, I feel a responsibility to help them make evaluation strides in their organizations. I look at it as giving back, as I have benefitted from evaluation mentors who have provided much guidance over the years. “High tides raise all ships” is a saying that runs through my mind.
Lessons Learned
1. Create a call to action
The community of environmental program evaluators, and even beyond, can serve as mentors and allies with those administrators who yearn to do more evaluation and think they need a large grant to make that happen. Large grants are hard to come by, yet all programs are worthy of evaluation. This blog is a call to action for program evaluators, especially those at a foundation in culturally-responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE), to reach out to colleagues in need of evaluation support and offer to help make one step in the direction toward addressing the needs of the organization and its audiences. The help doesn’t have to be a substantial investment of your time, yet could have substantial positive impact – by getting their program evaluation off the ground or move a customer service-based evaluation practice to a more CREE-based model.
2. Find opportunities to share your expertise with other colleagues
The very nature of CREE is based on a participatory process. In the spirit of participation and cultural responsiveness, can you think of anyone in your network who might benefit from a bit of evaluation support? Perhaps this can come in the form of a virtual coffee meeting, an evaluation clinic at a local or regional conference, an invitation to join you at an evaluation social event (if one exists in your area), or resource sharing via your platform of choice.
Earlier this month, I helped four of my evaluation colleagues in facilitating an evaluation clinic at our state’s environmental education association conference. Each table was packed with people who were seeking solidarity and solutions to their evaluation needs. Many expressed frustrations at roadblocks to their evaluation progress: limited finances and time, resistance to change, and more. It was gratifying to be in this space, share in the frustration and provide some steps on a pathway to increased CREE practice. The clinic facilitation team put in approximately 6 hours of prep time, an hour to implement, and a few more hours to debrief, analyze participant feedback, and plot our next evaluation adventure. We all agreed that the time we invested was rewarding and well spent.
This saying bears repeating: a high tide raises all ships. Let’s form that high CREE tide so that we rise with our peers.
I want to hear from you! If you have any questions or just need an evaluator shoulder to lean on, mine is here.
The American Evaluation Association is hosting Environmental Program Evaluation TIG Week with our colleagues in the Environmental Program Evaluation Topical Interest Group. The contributions all this week to AEA365 come from our EPE 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. The views and opinions expressed on the AEA365 blog are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the American Evaluation Association, and/or any/all contributors to this site.