Evaluating community projects

Abstract

Evaluating community projects seeks to explore the questions- what do users get out of community projects? what do projects achieve? how can we find this out? The study places community projects within a theoretical and historical context and examines participation in relation to involvement of users at different levels in projects. It explores different approaches to evaluation - experimental, American management, participatory and critical and looks at what implications these different approaches have for the meshing or otherwise of different interests. Examples from the case study of evaluation in a community project are threaded through the sections of the chapter on methods of evaluation. These sections are - measurement of intangibles, monitoring and indicators and participatory evaluation. Measurement of intangibles looks at how criteria for evaluation can be set against a background not only of criteria that might have to be negotiated but also concepts which are hard to break down into specifics. The section on monitoring looks at what information we need to gather, in what format from which source and also at project specific indicators. The last section of this chapter examines appropriate methods for participatory evaluation and how far this type of evaluation could be used in a project setting. The conclusion offers an expedient, loose framework for evaluation (as part of the process), which whilst situation specific offers possibilities for adaptation.