Participatory Evaluation
Are you planning a social justice-focused initiative and want total community buy-in? Seeking to understand an issue from the young people in your community’s perspective? Ready to tackle a major community challenge such as mental health stigma and not sure where to begin? Let the Mental Health and Resilience Group guide you in creating a process where all voices can be heard. The group specializes in strategies to engage stakeholders using creative means such as Photovoice and digital storytelling.
Participatory Evaluation Services
Participatory evaluation involves all the stakeholders in a project - those directly affected by it or by carrying it out - in contributing to the understanding of it, and in applying that understanding to the improvement of the work.
Participatory evaluation is more than asking stakeholders to take part. Involving everyone affected changes the whole nature of a project from something done for a group of people or a community to a partnership between the beneficiaries and the project implementers. Rather than powerless people who are acted on, beneficiaries become the copilots of a project, making sure that their real needs and those of the community are recognized and addressed.
Examples
The creative arts can be used to support stakeholders of mental health services to communicate and share their lived experience. Digital storytelling is one method that has been used to capture people's lived experience. The Mental Health & Resilience Group can train your team to use this tool with stakeholders or guide the process with stakeholders in your community directly.
Want to better engage young people in your community to understand challenging issues or to give them a a platform for advocacy. Youth participatory action research is designed and conducted by youth leaders, typically working in collaboration with adult mentors. The Mental Health & Resilience Group can coach your team through the process.
Photovoice is a process in which people use video and/or photo images to capture aspects of their environment and experiences and share them with others. The Mental Health and Resilience Group can help you use creative tools such as Photovoice to help key changemakers understand the lived experiences of young people or other key groups in your community.
The creative arts can be used to support stakeholders of mental health services to communicate and share their lived experience. Digital storytelling is one method that has been used to capture people's lived experience. The Mental Health & Resilience Group can train your team to use this tool with stakeholders or guide the process with stakeholders in your community directly.