What to know
In addition to ensuring that the community is engaged in the evaluation of a program, it is important to evaluate community engagement and its implementation. The goal is to determine if the process of developing, implementing, and monitoring an intervention or program is indeed participatory in nature.
Evaluating the Community Engagement Process
Evaluating community engagement ensures that the process of developing, implementing, and monitoring a program is participatory.
Questions for Evaluating Community Engagement
- Are the right community members involved?
- Does the process and structure of meetings allow for all voices to be heard and valued?
- How are community members involved in program development and ensuring cultural sensitivity?
- How are community members involved in implementation the program or intervention?
- How are community members involved in program evaluation or data analysis?
- What kind of learning has occurred, for both the community and the academics?
Social network analysis (SNA) is a mixed method that can be applied to the evaluation of community partnerships and community engagement.
SNA can be used to do the following:
- Examine social relationships and connections across a community
- Assess the linkages between people, activities, and locations
- Provides tools for quantifying connections between people based on similarities or frequency of interaction
- Data collection can be collected through existing or new sources, such as interviews and surveys
- Evaluates community partnerships, sustainability, and impact on community engagement
Tips From the Literature
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Framework for program evaluation in public health. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 1999;48(RR11):1-40.
Freeman J, Audia P. Community ecology and the sociology of organizations. Sociology 2006; 32:145-169
Green LW, George MA, Daniel M, Frankish CJ, Herbert CP, Bowie WR, et al. Study of participatory research in health promotion: review and recommendations for the development of participatory research in health promotion in Canada. Ottawa, Canada: The Royal Society of Canada; 1995
Israel BA, Shulz AJ, Parker EA, Becker AB. Review of community-based research: Assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual Review of Public Health 1998; 19:173-202
Wasserman S, Faust K. Social network analysis: methods and applications. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University; 1994