The Volunteers of America staff and affiliates participated in an empowerment evaluation workshop on May 7, 2007 in Los Angeles. Dr. David Fetterman, Stanford University, facilitated the workshop. (Click here to download his slide presentation.)Bob Pratt organized the workshop. Board members participated in the workshop and contributed to the dialogue. Participants shared their experience and expertise throughout the day.
(Double Click on the Volunteers of America picture above to display a brief video of the day.)
3 Steps
There are three steps to empowerment evaluation: 1) mission, 2) taking stock, and 3) planning for the future. The group was engaged throughout the process of formulating the mission or group values.
Then they prioritized the evaluation issues and activities by voting in a democratic fashion with dots. (We simply counted the dots to determine the highest priorities or activities to assess.)
Workshop participants selected the activities with the most dots and rated them on a 1 (low) to 10 (high) scale.
This gave the group data to begin the conversation or dialogue about what the ratings meant and why we rated some activities highly and others less positively.This process built the base for our plans for the future.
This produced real steps and strategies to improve communication, networking, and cross training. We look forward to the next steps as we continue to build a strong knowledge base and set of relationships.
