Professional Development: Equitable Evaluation Design Sessions

COEN is excited to share with its members a great opportunity for professional development. The details and link for applications is below.

What are the Equitable Evaluation design sessions? 

A unique professional development opportunity to deeply engage with how to put the principles of Equitable Evaluation into practice in your work. This includes two day-long, in-person sessions, with 2 monthly calls between the sessions and the expectation that you test out these principles in your existing work environment. The training is led by Jara Dean-Coffey, founder of the Luminare Group and developer of Equitable Evaluation. 

Who should attend?

These sessions are appropriate for evaluation practitioners who meet the following criteria:

• You are an evaluator whose projects/practice is mainly focused within Colorado
• You are already familiar with equity-informed concepts like cultural competence, multicultural evaluation, etc.
• You have the ability and authority to shift the evaluation work your organization is doing to incorporate principles of Equitable Evaluation. (This may mean that you lead an evaluation group or department, and can influence the way that your team does the work. If you are a direct practitioner of evaluation – i.e., scoping and carrying out the projects yourself – we ask that your role allows you primary authority to make decisions about how the evaluation will be scoped and carried out.)
• You have a deep commitment to equity and how evaluation can be in service of equity
• You have a willingness to engage in candid and sometimes uncomfortable conversations
• You are willing to challenge your own assumptions about your practice of evaluation and explore new thinking
•  You are willing to participate in constructing the field of play around Equitable Evaluation, rather than expecting these sessions will impart all the answers

Selection among applicants will be based on considerations of achieving a diversity of participants across multiple dimensions. We encourage applicants from outside the Denver metro area, though you will need to travel to Denver to attend the two design sessions in-person.

If possible, we encourage you to attend with another evaluator from your organization so that you can support each other in this work. (Given limited space, no more than 2 persons from any organization may apply.)

These sessions are designed for advanced practitioners, and are not a good fit for those who are just beginning in evaluation, individuals who are not actively overseeing or conducting evaluation studies, or individuals primarily engaged in research or data analysis.

When and Where are the sessions?   

Design session #1 – June  1^st

Design session #2 – September 14^th

We ask that participants commit to attending both design sessions, as well as the monthly calls. Participants will also be asked to intentionally practice how to incorporate Equitable Evaluation principles into their work in between the two design sessions, and to share their efforts back with the group.   

Sessions will be held at the Colorado Health Foundation,1780 Pennsylvania St, Denver. Lunch will be provided.

What's the cost to me?

There is no cost to participants. These sessions are sponsored by The Colorado Trust and the Colorado Health Foundation.