| Session Title: Becoming Culturally Responsive Evaluators: Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Intern Reflections on the Challenges of Valuing Culture in Evaluation Practice |
| Multipaper Session 242 to be held in San Clemente on Thursday, Nov 3, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM |
| Sponsored by the Multiethnic Issues in Evaluation TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Michelle Jay, University of South Carolina, mjay@sc.edu |
| Discussant(s): |
| Rita O'Sullivan, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, rjosull@mindspring.com |
| Abstract: In this multi-paper session, members of the 7th cohort of the AEA Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Program reflect on the challenges and successes they experienced in incorporating tenets of culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) into their evaluation internship projects. As emerging evaluators committed to CRE, which "recognizes that demographic, sociopolitical, and contextual dimensions, locations, perspectives, and characteristics of culture matter fundamentally in evaluation," (Hopson, 2009, p.431) the interns believe that valuing culture, context, and responsiveness is critical to the evaluative endeavor. The presenters will thus discuss their personal attempts to "value" culture, context and responsiveness in their respective internship projects. In so doing, they offer insights regarding the multiple contextual factors within their internship site, and within the programs being evaluated, that influenced their ability to translate culturally responsive evaluation theory into practice. |
| Sexual Education Needs Assessment for College Women of Color |
| Tamara Williams Van Horn, University of Colorado Boulder, tamara.williams@colorado.edu |
| Community Health at the University of Colorado-Boulder is committed to changing their sexual education content in a manner that provides a multi-stage interactive program that would continue throughout a students' career at CU-Boulder. The staff is aware that underrepresented populations may be better served by culturally relevant information, and that current staff and structures may not provide such information to its diverse constituents. At the same time, there has been little research done on the sexual education needs of female students of color at a predominantly white university. In this paper, I will reflect on the role of culturally responsive evaluation as it pertains to my efforts to conduct a needs assessment for Community Health staff in order to provide them with information that will inform future changes in their sexual education programming. The needs assessment specifically addressed whether Community Health's sexual education content relevant to women of color. |
| Starting Right: Adaptation of a Teen Pregnancy/Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) Prevention Program Using Culturally Responsive Evaluation Approaches |
| Ebun Odeneye, University of Texas, Houston, ebun.o.odeneye@uth.tmc.edu |
| Ross Shegog, University of Texas, Houston, ross.shegog@uth.tmc.edu |
| Stephanie Craig-Rushing, Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, scraig@npaihb.org |
| Cornelia Jessen, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, cmjessen@anthc.org |
| Christine Markham, University of Texas, Houston, christine.markham@uth.tmc.edu |
| Gwenda Gorman, Inter Tribal Council of Arizona Inc, gwenda.gorman@itcaonline.com |
| Culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) involves acknowledging the cultural context in which a program is planned, implemented and evaluated in seeking truth regarding the program's effectiveness. The University of Texas Prevention Research Center is collaborating with several tribal organizations to adapt and evaluate evidence-based teen pregnancy/STI prevention program for middle-school students ("It's Your Game, Keep it Real", IYG) for American Indian/Alaska Native youth (AI/AN) in the Alaska, Pacific Northwest, and Arizona regions. This multi-site endeavor is grounded in CRE's culture, context and responsiveness framework in that its first phase focuses on capturing and understanding the cultural context and identifying how to appropriately respond to it in terms of program design and implementation. This formative evaluation will involve focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and usability testing of the program components with youth and adults in the community. Resultant data will aid in tailoring IYG to meet the needs of AI/AN youth. |
| Process Evaluation of Three Neighborhood Action Teams |
| Alison Mendoza, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a.mendoza.215@gmail.com |
| The Y-USA Educational Achievement Initiative is an effort for branch YMCA's to lead the formation of Neighborhood Action Teams (NAT). These NATs are charged with working to identify barriers to educational achievement, and to design and implement a neighborhood action plan to address those barriers. Members of the NAT include representatives from area non-profits, local businesses, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students. The focus of the evaluation of this initiative is to document the coalition building process. This initiative is currently being piloted in three sites: Minneapolis, MN; Springfield, MA; and Pittsburgh, PA. The National YMCA is gathering best practices from these pilot sites in order to expand the initiative in the future. In this paper, I will reflect on the role of culturally responsive and collaborative evaluation as it pertained to my responsibilities to build relationships with stakeholders, collect and compile meeting documentation, and communicate with the site leaders. |
| A Culturally Responsive Evaluation of the HNF (High Need Family) Program: Is it in There? |
| Christopher St Vil, Howard University, stvil2002@yahoo.com |
| WFF's High Need Family (HNF) program is a permanent supportive housing program for homeless families who are experiencing multiple barriers, including mental illness, chemical dependency, domestic violence, trauma , dislocation, HIV/AIDS or other chronic illness, child protective service involvement, and/or criminal history. Begun in 2007, the model provides families with permanent supportive housing, on-site services, intensive strengths-based case management, weekly service contact, cross-provider coordination, referrals to services, and flexible funds to meet family needs for as long as needed. Westat was contracted to develop an effective screening and assessment process, conduct an evaluation that will help assure that program decisions are made in a manner that allows for a more definitive understanding of the effectiveness of supportive housing for high-need families. In this paper, I will reflect on the role of culturally responsive evaluation as it has pertained to my involvement in the evaluation of this initiative. |
| Evaluation With Focus Groups: Working With What You Have |
| Ciara Zachary, Johns Hopkins University, ciara.zachary@gmail.com |
| This paper will examine the use of focus groups as an evaluation tool to examine intermediate outcomes for Elev8 Baltimore. The program’s evaluation goals include informing and improving Elev8’s efforts at national sites in addition to informing local strategies to help increase the likelihood of meeting and surpassing Elev8 Baltimore’s aims. The evaluation plan calls for several data collection components including gathering quantitative school and program data as well as qualitative focus groups and interviews. Focus groups were conducted with parents, caregivers and students to gain insight into family and student beliefs, attitudes, perceptions and opinions concerning Elev8. While focus groups can be advantageous in that group dynamics can yield information that can make Elev8 staff and researchers aware of methods to improve the effectiveness of the project, I will address the challenges to conducting focus groups within this particular community with regards to communication, resources, and time constraints |