{"id":9257,"date":"2021-09-14T15:01:56","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T15:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/?post_type=cde-knowledge-base&#038;p=9257"},"modified":"2025-07-29T14:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:21:12","slug":"inidigenous-evaluation","status":"publish","type":"cde-knowledge-base","link":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/knowledge-base\/building-evidence\/inidigenous-evaluation\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous evaluation"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"9257\" class=\"elementor elementor-9257 elementor-10450\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4ba914b elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default tf-sticky-section tf-sticky-no\" data-id=\"4ba914b\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;tf_sticky&quot;:&quot;no&quot;}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-745ea785\" data-id=\"745ea785\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-17f1359b elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"17f1359b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3>Indigenous evaluation<\/h3><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The value of documenting your program\u2019s recipe through program evaluation is that you can adjust your ingredients or modify your steps for different community taste-testers. In this toolkit we described the utility of logic models for program evaluation and exploring what ingredients go into making your services or initiative. While logic models are a helpful tool, they also suggest a linear progression of how program inputs (elements of the program) can influence program outputs (the desired goals of a program). We recognize that this type of program evaluation comes from a Western framework of understanding behavior and behavior change. An Indigenous framework provides us with an alternative approach that affirms the beliefs, customs, and experiences of indigenous communities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Historically, evaluation work with indigenous communities in the Americas was characterized by \u201ctop-down\u201d (non-participatory) evaluation approaches. Outside evaluators selected evaluation designs and tools with little or no input from community members and practitioners. As evaluation is often tied to funding decisions, traditional approaches in evaluation have historically been tied to the threat of losing needed services and resources. Indigenous evaluation frameworks acknowledge and seek to repair this legacy of harm and distrust through the use of participatory methods and tools that are consistent with Indigenous world views and realities. <\/span><\/p><h4><b>Getting started<\/b><\/h4><p>Prior to using the Indigenous framework, we recommend to also review the following documents as they provide important content into understanding Indigenous communities and making your evaluation successful:<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Toolkit-PDFs-Evidence-Based-Who-are-Indigenous-people.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who are Indigenous People?\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ogsite.kinsta.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Toolkit-PDFs-Evidence-Based-Indigenous-Worldviews.pdf\">Indigenous Worldviews<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Toolkit-PDF-Evidence-Based-Indigenous-Framework.pdf\">What are the elements of an Indigenous Framework: Principles for Indigenous Research<\/a> (Hart, 2010)\u00a0<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Toolkit-PDFs-Evidence-Based-working-w-Indigenous-communities.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are some considerations for working with Indigenous communities?\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recipes in the kitchen often include multiple components, such as chicken or fish, vegetables, beans, rice, and very often the meal is complemented with a type of bread or flatbread. There is no lack of diversity of breads in the Americas. Tortilla, pan de agua, pan de yuca, and arepas, to name a few. Some of these breads may be familiar to you, some may not. What we serve participants from our kitchens most often reflects our own cultural experiences and lens. Taking the time to critically evaluate the components of our programs for cultural relevancy, and to seek feedback from program participants (our \u201ctaste-testers\u201d), can help strengthen the evaluation process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Throughout the evaluation, the team should reflect and consider the following:<\/span><\/p><ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Understanding the cultural context using participatory methods\u00a0<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Building culturally specific and locally meaningful elements<\/span><\/li><li>Integrating culture into all aspects of a program<\/li><li>Including immediate and extended family of your participants<\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once we consider the items above, we must engage community members. This could be by giving Indigenous communities an opportunity to decide program priorities, set program agenda, and critical areas to address.<\/span><\/p><h4><b>Determine if program works<\/b><\/h4><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An important difference between an indigenous approach to evaluation and traditional approaches is the types of outcomes and measures we use to determine success. To assess if the current program in place is working:<\/span><\/p><ul><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consider community-level outcomes (i.e. creating more organizational leadership roles, improving sense of community) as opposed to just individual-level outcomes (i.e. changing attitudes on healthy relationships) <\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use a holistic approach by exploring mental, physical, emotional and spiritual outcomes<\/span><\/li><li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Allow outcomes of your program to emerge without specifying specific predictions a priori (beforehand) <\/span><\/li><\/ul><h4><b>Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data<\/b><\/h4><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The purpose of collecting, analyzing and interpreting data is to explore your community needs and cultural fit. The following are methods used in the process of collecting, analyzing and interpreting data:<\/span><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use qualitative methods (storytelling, focus groups, interviews, talking circles, photovoice)<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/knowledge-base\/building-evidence\/share-information\/\">Share results<\/a> with community members and elicit their interpretations of findings<\/span><\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7e56ac8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7e56ac8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 200;\">Last updated 2021<\/span><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indigenous evaluation The value of documenting your program\u2019s recipe through program evaluation is that you can adjust your ingredients or modify your steps for different community taste-testers. In this toolkit we described the utility of logic models for program evaluation and exploring what ingredients go into making your services or initiative. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17871,"template":"","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]"},"media_category":[146,228,233],"media_tags":[272,282,266,278,313,283,302,284],"class_list":["post-9257","cde-knowledge-base","type-cde-knowledge-base","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","media_category-esperanza-united-departments","media_category-toolkits","media_category-building-evidence","media_tags-capacity-building","media_tags-documentation-and-evaluation","media_tags-free","media_tags-research-and-evaluation","media_tags-service-provider","media_tags-service-providers","media_tags-toolkit","media_tags-toolkits"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cde-knowledge-base\/9257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cde-knowledge-base"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cde-knowledge-base"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cde-knowledge-base\/9257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35784,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cde-knowledge-base\/9257\/revisions\/35784"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"media_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_category?post=9257"},{"taxonomy":"media_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esperanzaunited.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_tags?post=9257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}