Is Participation Having an Impact?

Abstract

• Summary: In 2005, a consortium of eight community-based organizations (CBOs) that do neighbourhood-level preventative work with families, youth and children in the inner city of Winnipeg, Canada, sought to develop indicators to measure the results of their work. Increasingly pressed by governments and other funders to produce such indicators, they believed that those generally in use missed many of the human gains that they were confident they were making with low-income, inner-city residents. They believed that their emphasis on the importance of colonization, and the need for decolonization, played an important role in their success, but that funders could not fully grasp this philosophical orientation, nor its practical implications. They approached the authors’ research institute for assistance in designing a methodology to better identify the outcomes of their efforts.

• Findings: The close and collaborative working relationship between the academic researchers and the community practitioners led to the development of indicators that better reflect outcomes for participants as seen through their eyes. The purpose of this article is to describe the research design that we developed, and the manner in which we worked together to develop it; to describe some of the key themes emerging from the research, and the implications for social policy; and to reflect on the PAR framework that was used in the study.

• Applications : This study, including the process, design and findings, is relevant for social workers employed as community developers in non-profit organizations; social workers on the front lines advocating for outcome measures that are sensitive to their ‘clients’ needs; social workers employed as evaluators and administrator; and social workers committed to research that contributes to building community capacity.