World Bridge Research, LLC
Evaluation Tool Kit
What is Empowerment Evaluation?

From Fetterman & Wandersman (2004), Empowerment Evaluation Principles in Practice.

One approach or “way” of doing evaluation is empowerment evaluation.  The aims are to increase the probability of
achieving program success by:

  1. Providing prevention team with a framework for how to assess, plan, implement and evaluate their program, and
  2. "Mainstreaming" evaluation as part of the planning and management of the program

This effort is guided by 10 empowerment evaluation principles:

Principle 1: Improvement
  • The focus is to help  programs succeed

Principle 2: Community Ownership
  • The program, organization, and/or community has control over the evaluation

Principle 3: Inclusion
  • Involves direct participation of all key stakeholders

Principle 4: Democratic Participation
  • The approach is a collaborative process

Principle 5: Social Justice
  • The aim is to make a difference with an eye toward the larger social good

Principle 6: Community Knowledge
  • Community-based knowledge and wisdom are valued and promoted

Principle 7: Evidence-based Strategies
  • The approach respects the knowledge base of scholars and practitioners who have provided information about
    what works in other communities

Principle 8: Capacity Building
  • When the team knows the basic steps of evaluation, they are better able to understand the results and use them
    for program improvement

Principle 9: Organizational Learning
  • The approach fosters a culture of institutional learning

Principle 10: Accountability
  • The approach measures both process and outcome objectives established by the team to determine whether the
    program achieved its goals. Positive and negative results are seen as valuable and informative to program
    improvement

What Is Getting To Outcomes (GTO)?

  1. GTO is a 10-step framework for planning, implementation and evaluation that is intended to increase success
    towards goals
  2. Compliments the empowerment evaluation philosophy























Relationship Between empowerment evaluation and GTO:










GTO is based on answering 10 accountability questions:

1. What are the needs and resources in my organization/community/state? Or

What do we have and what do we need?

2. What are the goals, priority population, and desired outcomes for my community/state? Or

What do we want to change?

3. How does this program incorporate knowledge of research and best practice in this area? Or

Finding ways to do it / strategies

4. How does this program fit with other programs already being offered? Or

Who are we again? Will this work for us?

5. What capacities do we need to put this program into place with quality? Or

What do we have again? Can we do this?

6. How will this program be carried out? Or

So, now what do we do?

7. How will the quality of program implementation be assessed? Or

Do it! How are we following the plan?

8. How well did the program work? Or

Is the change happening?

9. How will continuous quality improvement strategies be incorporated? Or

What will we do differently?

10. If the program (or components of the program) is successful, how will the program be sustained? Or

How do we keep what we want to keep?

By using GTO framework, programs are thought to increase their probability of achieving outcomes
and demonstrate their accountability to stakeholders.
Empowerment Evaluation Is:

  • Philosophy
  • Values
  • Provides an approach for
    the evaluation process
GTO Is:

  • Method / Framework
  • Tools
  • Defines “what to do” in
    a step-by-step fashion