All in Good Measure: Mapping Evaluation Tools for Community Development

by Simone Parrish

Choosing your path through the process of capacity assessment, performance measurement, and outcome evaluation can be a challenge.  There are so many tools and approaches to evaluation; wouldn't it be great to have a map to help clarify matters?
 
This was the thinking among the participants of a June 2003 NeighborWorks®  Training Institute symposium on measuring the results of community development efforts.  The NeighborWorks® Training Institute  offers high-quality, intensive training in community development issues.  The June 2003 symposium revealed that participants wanted a guide to help them choose the most effective tools and approaches to help them assess their work. 
 
NeighborWorks® America convened an expert group of practitioners, funders, researchers and evaluators along with visual planning experts to create a “storymap” to outline the many different options available to evaluate community development work.   The storymap was unveiled publicly for the first time at the June 2006 symposium, "All in Good Measure: Building Your Toolkit to Evaluate Capacity, Performance and Impact."  Over 250 people came together from organizations working on community development issues—funders, practitioners, evaluators, researchers and other leaders—to review and learn about the storymap and some of the challenges and struggles others have faced in using different evaluation tools and approaches.  Participants added their input and feedback on ways to make the storymap better, and took home a copy for their own reference. 
 
The feedback from the 2006 symposium was then incorporated in a revised version of the storymap.  The finished result is the Community Development Evaluation Storymap, an impressive interactive resource that offers clear and practical guidance for community development evaluation.  The guide includes concise explanations and real-world applications of capacity assessment, performance measurement, and outcome evaluation approaches, along with information about each recommended tool and resources for each process.
 
Innovation Network is very pleased to have all three of our online tools—the Organizational Assessment Tool, the Logic Model Builder, and the Evaluation Plan Builder—included in this remarkable guide, and we have added the NeighborWorks® America evaluation site to the Resource Center at Point K.

For more information, please visit www.nw.org/evaluation.

About NeighborWorks America
NeigborWorks® America provides financial support, technical assistance and training for communities across the nation, including the NeighborWorks® network – a nationwide network of nearly 4,500 urban, suburban and rural communities across America. These organizations engage in revitalization strategies that strengthen communities and transform lives.  In the last five years alone, NeighborWorks® organizations have generated more than $10 billion in reinvestment and helped more than 780,000 families of modest means purchase or improve their homes, or secure safe, decent rental or mutual housing.  For more information, visit their website: www.nw.org.