NEW YORK, NY (October 6, 2023)—CAI’s evaluators are sharing findings from recent national and regional initiatives at the 2023 American Evaluation Association Conference this week. This year’s conference is bringing 2,200 evaluators, researchers, and other professionals to Indianapolis to learn about the theme of storytelling as a powerful tool for program evaluation.
CAI is delivering three presentations related to the The Power of Story theme:
- “Painting a New Picture: Story-infused Participatory Methods to Build Community-led Narratives” describes how CAI incorporated storytelling into engagement and evaluation approaches in HOPE and REACH, two projects of CAI’s in Buffalo, NY. CAI staff will present approaches to building trust, strengthening strategies, and authentically incorporating community feedback and voice to improve teen health and chronic disease outcomes.
- “Developing and Implementing a Multi-level Evaluation Framework to Assess Learning Collaboratives from Multiple Perspectives,” describes how CAI implemented an evaluation framework and tools to assess the effectiveness of two learning collaboratives aimed at improving Rapid Start provision and HIV care outcomes (TAP-In), and preventing substance abuse relapse among recently incarcerated individuals (Project SUCCEED).
- “Evaluation as a Creative Pursuit: Shifting the Learning Paradigm to Promote Divergent Thinking and Empower Individual Stories,” engages participants in an interdisciplinary dialogue about using creative approaches to enhance evaluation process and outcomes and rethink how we view significance and what gives our work meaning.
“Community engagement, involving storytelling, active listening, and addressing community needs, is vital in every CAI project,” said Lindsay Senter, CAI’s Vice President of Research and Evaluation. “It ensures our work reflects community experiences, enhances accessibility to evaluation for community members, and deepens our understanding of complex concepts.”
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