Presenters:
Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, Ph.D., M.P.H, Principal, TERSHA LLC.
Norma Martínez-Rubin, M.P.H., M.B.A, Principal, Evaluation Focused Consulting


Description:
This eStudy will offer participants a means to examine what being “culturally responsive” and “equitable” is in current evaluation practice. This includes an overview of content derived from scholarly work on culturally responsive and equitable evaluation (CREE) and an introduction to the I.M.P.A.C.T. framework originated by the presenters.

The presenters will combine slides, small-group discussions, and self-reflection exercises to communicate the content and engage participants. Content delivery involves cognitive, affective, and psychomotor learning domains. The e-Study’s mini-lectures, small-group discussion, guiding questions, and debriefing will foster a collegial atmosphere to yield an exchange of actionable ideas to apply in evaluation practice. Using a digital whiteboard display of participants’ insights gained from the webinar experience will mimic the result of a co-creative process useful to evaluators when in service to communities.

Each I.M.P.A.C.T. framework component encourages the evaluator to reflect on how to apply a CREE mindset for evaluative purposes.
• Inclusive: For whom am I working? How do community members engage in defining the “problem” from a strength-based perspective to attain equitable and culturally derived solutions?
• Manumit: The evaluator sets free their preconceptions and listens to community members in a co-creative process.
• Practice-based: Evaluators systematically identify assumptions and co-create practical recommendations for social change in a particular setting.
• Accessible: Evaluators present study findings, or results, in formats and at literacy levels that are comprehensible to community members and allies whose lives or ways of operating will be influenced by the evaluation.
• Community-focused: Evaluators’ philosophical and technical approaches demonstrate adaptability and the understanding that methodological rigor may not align with community needs.
• Timely: Evaluators are mindful of the urgency, and timeliness of acquiring evidence derived from community engagement to help rectify inequities in myriad social systems traversed by those communities.


Learning Outcomes:

• To recognize how cultural responsiveness and social equity can be integral in evaluation planning and design
• To use the I.M.P.A.C.T. framework as a community-focused and culturally centered evaluation practice tool
• To describe how evaluation practice intersects with community liberation and self-determination

Homework:
To prepare for robust discussion in the second part of this webinar, co-facilitators will request participants identify and email back within the week a brief description of how they will apply the I.M.P.A.C.T framework, if applicable, in current/future design or plan for a forthcoming evaluation in their work setting.


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

Competencies

Culturally responsive, equitable evaluation emphasizes the importance of evaluators’ sensitivity to the communities of study in evaluations. To develop that sensitivity requires examination and self-awareness of one’s own biases and how they influence methodological choices in evaluation planning and design. The webinar content introduces a framework to adapt away from those biases and lean toward cultural sensitivity.

The proposed webinar content aligns with the following AEA competencies:

Context Domain: Focuses on understanding the unique circumstances, multiple perspectives, and changing settings of evaluations and their users/stakeholders.

Interpersonal Domain: Focuses on human relations and social interactions that ground evaluator effectiveness for professional practice throughout the evaluation.

Guiding Principles

The webinars will emphasize the practical significance of designing and planning evaluations for contextual relevance to the communities affected by the methods used to engage them. Insights gained will be about how such community members’ lives are affected in the short and long-term when evaluation findings are used in eventual program development.

The following guiding principles are applicable to the webinar content:

Systematic Inquiry: Evaluators conduct data-based inquiries that are thorough, methodical, and contextually relevant.

Respect for People: Evaluators honor the dignity, well-being, and self-worth of individuals and acknowledge the influence of culture within and across groups.

Common Good and Equity: Evaluators strive to contribute to the common good and advancement of an equitable and just society.


Facilitation Experience:

The presenters co-originated the I.M.P.A.C.T. framework as a collaborative, scholarly effort to enhance CREE theory and practice among evaluators and non-evaluators.

Sharon Attipoe-Dorcoo, Ph.D., MPH, principal of TERSHA LLC, is first and foremost grounded in her cultural identity as a Ghanaian-American and embraces her other intersectional facets of being a wife and mom in her work. As a poet, speaker, and facilitator, Dr. Attipoe-Dorcoo has facilitated trainings for either building community trust in research or using participatory leadership facilitation in evaluation design.

Ms. Martínez-Rubin is a former Assistant Director of the California STD/HIV Prevention Training Center (1998-2002), a CDC-funded regional center where she developed and conducted training and facilitation in disease prevention and health promotion to non-clinicians using multimedia and small-group experiences to enhance participants’ adoption of abstract concepts for application in clinical and field settings. Prior and subsequent to a primary focus on training, she conducted and facilitated issue-specific presentations among youth and adult audiences requiring the field adaptation of technical information to enhance the early adoption of health promotion and risk reduction behaviors in teen pregnancy prevention, HIV prevention, harm reduction, and chronic disease prevention while a staff member in local health departments in Los Angeles and San Francisco and with initiatives of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health.

The proposed workshop is derived from content for an academic textbook chapter currently in press written by the workshop proponents: Attipoe-Dorcoo, S. & Martínez-Rubin, N. (in press). Critically Defining I.M.P.A.C.T. for Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation. In Adedoyin, C., Amutah-Onukagha, N, & Jones, C. (Eds.), Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation: Visions and Voices of Emerging Scholars. Cognella Academic Publishing. San Diego, CA.

E-study presenters have co-authored and co-presented an overview of the chapter content as a Learning Table to evaluators in the Advancing Culturally Responsive and Equitable Evaluation Network (9/2021), as a webinar to the American Evaluation Association Theory of Evaluation Topical Interest Group (10/2021), as a workshop during the American Evaluation Association Summer Institute (06/2022), to the American Evaluation Association affiliate in Atlanta (9/2022), and to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in coordination with the Program Performance and Evaluation Office (11/2022).
.

Dates:
March 14, 2023 3:00 - 4:30 PM ET
March 28, 2023 12:00 - 1:30 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.