| Session Title: Arkansas Evaluation Center and Empowerment Evaluation: We Invite Your Participation as We Think About How to Build Evaluation Capacity and Facilitate Organizational Learning in Arkansas |
| Think Tank Session 576 to be held in Carroll Room on Friday, November 9, 11:15 AM to 12:00 PM |
| Sponsored by the Collaborative, Participatory & Empowerment Evaluation TIG |
| Presenter(s): |
| David Fetterman, Stanford University, profdavidf@yahoo.com |
| Discussant(s): |
| Linda Delaney, University of Arkansas, linda2inspire@earthlink.net |
| Abstract: A new Arkansas Evaluation Center will be housed at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff. The Center emerged from empowerment evaluation training efforts in a tobacco prevention program (funded by the Minority Initiated Sub-Recipient Grant's Office). The aim of the Center is to help others help themselves through evaluation. The Center is designed to build local evaluation capacity in the State to help improve program development and accountability. The Center will consist of two parts: an academic program beginning with a certificate program and later offering a masters degree. It will combine face-to-face and distance learning. The second part of the Center will focus on professional development: including guest speakers, workshops, conferences, and publications. The Center will be grounded in an empowerment evaluation philosophical orientation and guided by pragmatic mixed-methods training. In addition, it will help evaluators learn how to use new technological and web-based tools. |