Commissioned by The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) and developed and written by Community Science, Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity, a three-part series for evaluation professionals describing how to incorporate racial equity as a core value, embedded in every aspect of the evaluation process. These practical guides are designed to help evaluators strengthen their expertise and improve the services they provide to clients and communities. These guides will also help public and private funders and nonprofit leaders know what they can expect from evaluations that are practiced in service of racial equity. A diverse cadre of distinguished evaluators and social justice advocates provided insightful reviews and feedback on the guides.
“The global outcry for racial justice over the past few years also grew the evaluation community’s desire for a tool that practically links the processes of evaluation and racial equity,” said Dr. Huilan Krenn, director of learning & impact at the Kellogg Foundation. “It’s in this spirit that we’ve carefully crafted these three transformational guides.”
“We know why we have to do evaluation in service of racial equity, but we struggle with how; these guides help us take the first step toward the how. These guides, which were developed in the middle of a pandemic and the violence committed against Black men and women by law enforcement, enabled us at Community Science to continue to grapple with the role of evaluation in our mission to support effective strategies, equitable systems, and strong communities.” said Dr. Kien S. Lee, principal associate and vice president at Community Science and primary author of the guides.
- Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity – Debunk Myths
Identifies many of the misguided beliefs and ideas held by funders, advocates, community leaders, evaluators and others that can create barriers to practicing evaluations for racial equity. - Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity – Diagnose Biases and Systems
Recognizes the implicit biases that influence evaluation practice and evaluators’ understanding of systems in evaluations. - Doing Evaluation in Service of Racial Equity – Deepen Community Engagement
Promotes responsible, responsive and genuine engagement of communities in the evaluation process and as an outcome in evaluation.
These easy-to-use resources will help evaluators integrate racial equity principles into their daily work. Each guide provides meaningful definitions, models, case studies and reflection exercises that can be applied in real-time.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation in partnership with Community Science will host a series of webinars, featuring each of the guides during January 2022.
