The Process of Applying Principles-Focused Evaluation to the Sexual Violence Prevention Field: Implications for Practice in Other Social Services Fields

Abstract

Principles focused evaluation (PFE) can complement existing formative and outcome evaluation plans by identifying Effectiveness Principles (EPs), an operationalization of values and standards that guide practitioners during program implementation. To date, however, few examples of PFE are available in the literature. This description of the application of PFE to the Washington State Rape Prevention and Education (RPE) sexual violence prevention program provides an example of how this flexible approach can augment an existing evaluation plan to distill shared evaluation components across different organizations implementing diverse prevention programming. Specifically, we describe the process used by a team of practitioners, funders, evaluation consultants and state-level sexual violence prevention technical assistance providers to identify EPs, operationalize indicators for each EP, and develop and test an EP measurement approach. In this process, the seven very different RPE-funded organizations, each serving a unique community, were able to identify and endorse shared, core EPs. This description illustrates PFE's promise for augmenting a shared evaluation approach and identifying common guiding tenets across uniquely situated organizations in a larger community of practice.