Evaluating and improving policy and practice

Ferrie, J. and Lachapelle, P. (2021) Evaluating and improving policy and practice. In: McConnell, C., Muia, D. and Clarke, A. (eds.) International Community Development Practice. Series: Community development research and practice series. Routledge: New York, NY ; Abingdon, Oxon, pp. 225-253. ISBN 9780367691240 (doi: 10.4324/9781003140498-9)

Abstract

This chapter looks at the eighth competency area for community development practice, how to evaluate in order to improve policy and practice. Project and program evaluation in community development is vital to learning, to knowing where the project is going, to making decisions about work planning and resource allocation, and as the basis for reporting back on progress to the community, to your employing agency and to other key stakeholders, such as funders. In community development practice, evaluation is not something just undertaken by the professional practitioner or some outside research consultant. Community development practice lays great emphasis upon participative action research. In other words, in engaging and supporting the engagement of the community in the project/program evaluation process. Action research also highlights that evaluation is not an exercise done at the end of the project, but periodically during it. In other words, it is undertaken to inform and shape progress, as well as at the completion of the project. This chapter looks at participatory action research in more detail and, by way of five case studies at how evaluation has been used to improve policy and practice.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Keywords: Participation, inclusion, participatory action research, community, policy, methods.
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ferrie, Professor Jo
• Authors: Ferrie, J., and Lachapelle, P.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9780367691240
• Published Online: 26 November 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 The contributors
• First Published: First published in International Community Development Practice: 225-253
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy