Improving Conditions in Communities with Engagement and Outcomes
What we learned: Challenges in linking civic engagement, outcomes and measures
- Engagement at previous stages can affect success at a later stage, e.g., early engagement in prioritizing outcomes supports later scaling of promising, well-evaluated interventions
- Meaning of outcomes and measures differs among program customers, residents and other stakeholders.
- “Important to define many of the terms used here: “Substantial, Relevant,” etc.”
- Prioritizing among outcomes and measures entails engagement of all types of participants
- Prioritization criteria
- Driver diagram: “Makes other goals more achievable.”
- Measuring the full impact of high-level outcomes requires multiple measures.
- How to measure can be difficult, and different, even for measures of the same outcome.
- Success requires diverse engagement and measurement throughout the process
- Many suggestions about resources and partners in this effort:
- William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
- Missouri Kids First
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- Urban Institute
Discussion:
Who are really focused on outcomes and engagement?
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