Presenters:

Alex Bauer (she/her)
Research and Evaluation Associate
The Sherwood Foundation.

Dylan Felt (she/her)
Research Project Manager
The Evaluation, Data Integration, and Technical Assistance (EDIT) Program
Northwestern University

Amy Lippincott (she/her)
Senior Support Specialist – Evaluation & Learning
TCC Group

Esrea Perez-Bill (she/they)
Research Project Coordinator
The Evaluation, Data Integration, and Technical Assistance (EDIT) Program
Northwestern University

Shepherd Tsosie (they/them)
Researcher
Unaffiliated

Michael Petillo (he/they)
Senior Research Coordinator, Center for Health Equity Research, Northern Arizona University
Principal Consultant,
CES Partnership, LLC

JulieAnn Sickell (she/her)
Senior Evaluation and Research Associate
International Republican Institute (IRI)

Description: LGBTQ+ Evaluation has long been ignored as a niche special interest or content area of secondary importance. The erasure of this area of inquiry and practice, which is generally understood as evaluation done in service of and/or partnership with individuals who identify as lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, queer, pansexual, asexual, Two-Spirit, non-binary, intersex, and other non-cisgender or non-heterosexual identities – including many which do not conform to Western understandings of sex, gender, or sexuality – has produced a lack of field standards for LGBTQ+-responsive work, a high prevalence of problematic data interpretation, and erasure and misrepresentation of LGBTQ+ lived experience, among other concerns. Today, LGBTQ+ Evaluation is beginning to receive a long-overdue moment in the sun. With this growing attention, however, comes an equally important opportunity.

This two-day, six-hour, participatory eStudy fills a gap in LGBTQ+ Evaluation training by taking an inquiry-based approach in which attendees develop practical skills in LGBTQ+ Evaluation while reflecting on the question, “How can our work as evaluators help to advance LGBTQ+ peoples liberation?” This eStudy is designed to help participants develop the theoretical as well as methodological skills necessary to conduct rigorous, affirming, liberatory work with LGBTQ+ populations through a combination of teaching styles including didactic lecture, group discussion, and hands-on learning through case studies. Attendees will learn with and from a collaborative cadre of evaluators who represent a diversity of professional and personal backgrounds, with both lived experience and honed expertise in LGBTQ+ Evaluation. Participants will leave with an understanding of LGBTQ+ Evaluation as more than specialized content knowledge, but as a holistic practice and a theoretical and empirical orientation through which to approach transformative evaluation work.

In response to potential issues with firewalls, here is our plan for the Collaborative Tools we will employ:

We will take the following steps to ensure that all participants are able to access collaborative tools:

• Registered participants will be informed, in advance, that we will be using Google tools and that they can either use their personal email accounts to access collaborative tools, or take advantage of the alternatives in point #2 below:

• All parts of the session which will include use of collaborative tools will have a facilitator from our team present. In the case that any person can’t access these tools, they can use the public chat, private messages, or can share thoughts out loud and have the facilitator transcribe them.

• The Zoom room will be set up to ensure all these features are enabled. (We will also chat with AEA about how we’d like the Zoom set up in advance, and ask if they have any other alternatives that they’ve seen used in eStudies previously that they’d like us to integrate here).

Learning Outcomes:

• Participants will become familiar with the socially and politically contextual nature of terminology relating to sex, sexual orientation, and gender, and will be able to accurately describe the ways in which social power structures operate to marginalize certain communities on the basis of their relationship to these constructed characteristics;

• Participants will be able to describe the role evaluation plays in reifying or challenging the social power structures and social categories constructed around our ideas of sex, sexual orientation, and gender;

• Participants will be able to apply knowledge gained during the first two sessions by working through scenarios drawn from real-world experiences.

• Participants will be able to characterize the purpose of LGBTQ+ Evaluation in promoting LGBTQ+ liberation;

• Participants will be able to identify their own roles and responsibilities in promoting LGBTQ+ liberation through evaluation, and will identify points of leverage which they can use their power to influence in order to promote LGBTQ+ liberation;

• Participants will collaboratively develop a set of guiding values and specific actions to inform their LGBTQ+ evaluation work moving forward, and will co-create a network of evaluators committed to using our work to advance LGBTQ+ liberation.

Who Should Attend?
This eStudy is relevant for evaluators of all backgrounds and experiences who are interested in conducting effective, equitable, and culturally responsive evaluations in partnership with LGBTQ+ communities.

This workshop is aligned to AEA’s Competencies and Guiding Principles as follows:

This eStudy is designed to support evaluators to design and conduct evaluations in partnership with LGBTQ+ communities. As such, we deal heavily with topics related to competencies of context, methodology, and interpersonal interaction. A praxis of LGBTQ+ evaluation spans all of AEA’s guiding principles. While issues of Respect for People and Common Good and Equity are easily understood in relation to LGBTQ+ cultural responsiveness, this eStudy also touches on how LGBTQ+-affirming evaluation demands reflexive Integrity, critical Competence, and rigorous Systematic Inquiry.


Facilitation Experience:
This eStudy is facilitated by a multidisciplinary collective of LGBTQ+ Evaluators with facilitation experience in both formal and informal learning settings. Members of our facilitation team have developed and delivered workshops at AEA annual conferences and Summer Institutes, supervised multi-site training and technical assistance initiatives, led lecture and discussion in university settings, and overseen team-based professional development activities. Attendees can expect a dynamic facilitation style which incorporates both didactic and hands-on experiential teaching.


Dates:
September 13th, 2022 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM ET
September 20th, 2022 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM ET

Note:
Once you purchase the eStudy you must register for each session. Recordings will be made available to registrants unable to attend sessions live. Recordings will be made available to all registrants for 90 days.