Participatory Evaluation Model for Coalitions: The Development of Systems Indicators

Abstract

This article presents the evolution of a comprehensive participatory coalition evaluation model and a workbook that emerged from a 6-year Healthier Communities initiative in New Mexico. Despite the explosion of interest in a new paradigm for coalition evaluation, few models in the literature encompass coalition effectiveness, capacity and health outcomes, and a dynamic process of community participation. The New Mexico model features a participatory evaluation process that emphasizes community system changes and population health changes. Several community case stories illustrate the difficulties and potentials of using the participatory evaluation model. Lessons learned include the need for guiding principles so that issues such as power relationships and collaborative decision making are “above board,” understanding the complexity of coalition evaluation, the need to clarify evaluator roles to enhance buy-in, the use of a logic model to clarify a common vision of change, and the importance of using community-friendly, jargon-free language.