David Fetterman, one of empowerment evaluation’s founders,
offers five facets of empowerment evaluation that turn the theory of
empowerment evaluation into the practice of empowerment
evaluation:
1) Training: This one should be pretty obvious. There is a lot of planning
and knowledge-expertise that goes into evaluating, so the evaluators first need
to teach their clients the principles and methodology of evaluation.
2) Facilitation: After training, evaluators should step back from conducting the
evaluation themselves to take on the role of a guide or coach, monitoring the
client’s processes and ensuring they can use the evaluation to improve their
program.
3) Advocacy: A large part of a
successful and effective empowerment evaluation comes from the support of the
evaluator. An evaluator might see several different options for making a
program succeed and can recommend which might be the best. But rather than
telling the client what to do, the evaluator advocates for client’s own
abilities to put into practice the steps that the client believes will make the
program successful.
4) Illumination: This facet may be one of
the most important to consider when collaborating with clients. Evaluators must
take the time to share the processes, techniques, and the theory of empowerment
evaluation with their clients so that clients can build confidence in their
evaluative skills.
5) Liberation: When clients gain the
skills necessary to evaluate their own programs, they become liberated from the
need to have someone else to tell them what they’re doing right and wrong. The
evaluator instead supports clients when opportunities to grow arise, when it’s
time to consider redefining the program, and when clients want to change
themselves and the program for the better.
Empowerment evaluation is a highly participatory and
collaborative approach to evaluating programs. Following these five facets
allows a program to be evaluated, transformed, and effectively improved to
address community and society problems.
Want more information? Check out the links below:
An overview of the principles of empowerment evaluation and
details an example of the process in action: http://people.ucsc.edu/~ktellez/266Readings/Empowerment%20Evaluation.PDF
A short article about the history, the current state, and the
future plans for empowerment evaluation written by Fetterman and Wandersman: http://davidfetterman.com/documents/EEyesterday.pdf
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