The pandemic has uncovered several social and political fractures within communities. Without action, the pandemic could prolong economic hardship in marginalized communities. Therefore, it’s imperative that today’s evaluation design for programs serving marginalized communities be created with an appreciation of targeted and measurable community needs. The disproportionate impacts of the pandemic demands that our evaluation design become more people-centered with a stronger focus on how the lives of people are becoming better off as a result of place-based programs. This requires evaluators to move away from a “by-the-numbers” approach to outcomes reporting to an approach that builds out a narrative of impact, which truly starts in the way we frame and evaluate programs. 

Last year, our annual conference theme provided practical evaluation tools and strategies for conducting evaluations in ways that contribute to equitable evaluation processes and equitable societal outcomes. We heard from our participants that equitable evaluation is critical, and that our approach to evaluation design must evolve. Therefore, MAE’s 28th Annual Conference will continue the conversation about the promise of equitable evaluation with a focus on creating our evaluation design “WITH” people instead of for people, many times without their input. 

For questions, please contact the Program Committee Chair: Victoria Bigelow vbigelow@umich.edu

Registration for the pre-conference is a separate process. Please register at: https://maeeval.org/event-5235850