Using Empowerment Evaluation
Facilitating Community Commitment/Volunteering
Honoring and Building Relationships/Mutual Help Groups

Responsibility and accountability are marks of a good relationship between an organization and its community: one that is built on trust and commitment.

Most organizations expect all stakeholders concerned about the well-being of families and neighborhoods to assume some responsibility for meeting their needs. When responsibility is shared, stakeholders communicate, cooperate, and hold each other accountable.

Empowerment evaluation uses evaluation techniques to increase the self-determination of program participants. Empowerment evaluation can be applied to individuals, organizations, programs, communities, societies or cultures.

Empowerment or participatory evaluation: 

• allows participants to experiment and take risks as
  part of the evaluation process
• promotes shared responsibility and community
  involvement
• ensures that participants are seen as experts
• implements planning and services on the basis of program needs
• incorporates ethnic diversity
• emphasizes cooperation and collaboration
• documents program development and accomplishments
• strengthens the problem-solving skills of
  community members
• examines failures and successes

Before setting up an empowerment evaluation process,
staff and community members should establish a forum to explore its uses. A committee can help answer key questions. For example:

• When and where should the evaluation be held?
• What questions should be asked?
• What format should be used?
• Should responses be obtained anonymously from individual community members, collectively from
  small groups, or from a large assembly of comm-
  unity members?
• How should non-participants be handled?
• Who will perform the analysis?
• How will the community be informed of the evaluation's process and its results?

When residents contribute to community life, the neighborhood, families, and other residents benefit.

Some residents are comfortable in leadership roles. These individuals may offer to speak at public meetings, share their skills with other residents, or advocate for community needs in a variety of settings. Other residents may prefer to volunteer in established programs like child care centers or support group meetings. Nevertheless, community work cements relationships between families and between residents.

Volunteering engages individuals in activities that increase commitment, investment, and loyalty to both the community and organization. Some potential benefits of volunteering are:

• contributing to something "larger than oneself"
• creating a sense of neighborhood
• encouraging reciprocity and leadership development

Organizations can recruit volunteers by word-of-mouth, newsletters, community events, local media, and outreach. Ideally, volunteers (such as staff) should be from varied cultural, ethnic, and generational backgrounds. Have clearly defined roles and effective supervision for volunteers.

Relationships are crucial to the success of community-based organizations. Without them, the trust necessary for communities and residents to work effectively will not exist.

Parenting classes, fathers and mothers groups, and substance abuse support groups are examples of mutual-help groups. They build relations and are based on three assumptions:

1. Families and individuals need opportunities to explore mutual interests and concerns.

2. Groups need to create and maintain customs and values.

3. Mutual help efforts create and strengthen informal supports.

The security and intimacy of small groups encourage residents to become more involved in community work. To determine if the community needs mutual support groups ask:

• Are residents requesting resources to help build self-esteem and confidence?
• Have residents requested information and resources about different life stages/transitions (spiritual, educational, economic, physical, or emotional experiences)?
• Have residents requested opportunities to discuss these issues with others facing similar changes?
• Are there other opportunities to connect with community members in this way?