Presentation by Common Knowledge Research and Consulting on the opportunities and challenges of evaluating a community led initiative based in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Canada.

1. Stay where you’re too ‘til I comes
where you’re at!
The opportunities and challenges of
evaluating a community-led initiative
common knowledge
research and consulting

2. Presentation Overview
Context – Gender based violence in Nova Scotia
About Be the Peace
Boundaries of evaluation theory and methodology
Challenges and opportunities
There is power and potential in our sharing and cooperation.
- Be the Peace Forum Participant 2013

3. Context – Gender based
violence in Nova Scotia
• Between 1999 and 2004 an estimated 21,000 NS
women were victims of intimate partner violence
• Reporting rates are among the lowest in Canada
Harbour House, Lunenburg, NS (2009/10 fiscal)
923
counselling
sessions
372 distress
calls
86 new
admissions
35 children
admitted
with their
mothers
13
readmissions
We need to be talking to, listening and working with young women, and men
about the stereotypes they've been force fed by media of all types.
- Be the Peace Forum Participant 2013

4. About Be the Peace
A personal thanks to all of you for bringing this
issue to the forefront in Lunenburg county. I
hope that we are an example for change
around the province/country/world.
- Be the Peace Forum Participant 2013

5. About Be the Peace

6. About Be the Peace – Work
to date
Youth & Schools Working Group
Gather The Women
Gather The Men
Substance Abuse and Violence
Working Group
Sexual Assault Response Working
Group
Restorative Justice/Approaches In
Domestic Violence Working Group
Community Planning Team
Interagency Network on Violence
Against Women
Neighbours, Friends and Families
initiative
Parenting Support and Education
New Germany Rural Families
Working Group

7. Exploring Boundaries
Developmental
evaluation
Accountable to
the commitment
to make a
difference
Performance
measures change
as the process
unfolds
Traditional
Evaluation
Accountability to
external authorities
Measures
performance against
pre-determined
outcomes and goals

8. Exploring Boundaries
Funders Project Team
Engaged
Organizations
Community
The Be the Peace forum felt extremely valid and moving. I feel like it brought me
closer with my community and gave me greater hope that change is possible. It
does feel like we need to engage with more people in more contexts.
- Be the Peace Forum Participant 2013

9. Challenges
• Accountability to multiple groups for
multiple goals
• Timeframe
• Can they really
change course?
We are stuck in not having the time to
keep up with all the information, all
the people and all the possibilities.
- Be the Peace Project Team Member

10. Opportunities
• Potential for innovation
– both in terms of the
project and the
evaluation
• Capacity building
Have hope. It sometimes seems like a
large and insurmountable problem.
However it is obvious that there are a
number of caring committed people
working to change our culture. I want
to do what I can to be one of them.
- Be the Peace Forum Participant 2013

11. References
• Atkinson, Rebecca (2009). Violence Against Women and Girls in Lunenburg
County. Second Story Women’s Centre. Website:
http://www.secstory.com/include/docs/violence_lunenburg_county.pdf
• Learning from Change: Issues and experiences in participatory monitoring and
evaluation (2000). Edited by Marisol Estrella, Jutta Blauert, Dindo Campilan, John
Gaventa, Julian Gonsalves, Irenen Guijt, Deb Johnson and Roger Ricafort.
Intermediate Technology Publications. Website:
http://www.theoryofchange.org/wp-
content/uploads/toco_library/pdf/Participatory_M&E.pdf
• Dozois, Elisabeth, Langlois, Marc, and Blanchet-Cohen, Natasha (2010). A
Practitioner’s Guide to Developmental Evaluation. The J.W. McConnell Family
Foundation and the International Institute for Child Rights and Development.
Website:
http://mcconnellfoundation.ca/assets/Media%20Library/Publications/DE%20201%
20EN.pdf
• Gamble, Jamie A. A. (2008). A Developmental Evaluation Primer. The J.W.
McConnell Family Foundation. Website:
http://www.mcconnellfoundation.ca/assets/Media%20Library/Publications/A%20
Developmental%20Evaluation%20Primer%20-%20EN.pdf
• Patton, M.Q. (2006) Evaluation for the Way We Work. The Nonprofit Quarterly.
Vol. 13 (1): 28-33. Website: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8233067/Michael-Quinn-
Patton-Developmental-Evaluation-2006

12. common knowledge
research and consulting