This event is sponsored by The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts.
This session will provide an overview of the empowerment evaluation (EE) model.
Dr. Pam Imm (bio below) will review the definition of EE and its principles and practices. EE will also be compared to other evaluation approaches, such as collaborative evaluation and participatory evaluation.
Dr. Imm will discuss how the principles of EE ensure a collaborative partnership among program staff, the funder, and the evaluator, with the overarching aim of achieving positive outcomes. She will present specific methods and tools for how EE promotes accountability.
Two case examples of the effective use of EE by projects funded by The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts will be presented by the projects’ evaluators. Dr. Mary Brolin (Brandeis University) will highlight the Worcester Initiative for Supported Reentry (“WISR”) which supported those being released from incarceration and significantly reduced recidivism. Dr. Emily Rothman (Boston University) will highlight A Better Life which supported public housing residents’ movement to economic self-sufficiency.
The program will include ample time for a robust discussion with attendees. A networking reception will follow the discussion. This event is free and open to all.
The AC Hotel has complimentary valet parking. The hotel is also T-accessible (Alewife Red Line stop).
Dr. Pamela Imm
Pamela S. Imm, Ph.D., received her doctorate in clinical and community psychology from the University of South Carolina. She has extensive experience in the areas of program development, program evaluation and applied research. Dr. Imm has been consulting with The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts (THFCM) for nearly two decades. She has served in a variety of roles including facilitating the work of a small cadre of evaluators for THFCM’s Synergy Initiative. She is also the author of THFCM’s Ten-Year Report, which highlighted the work of the foundation.
Dr. Imm’s research is widely published, and she has contributed chapters on the principles of empowerment evaluation as well as the practical application of these principles within various community settings. Most recently, she and her colleagues, including Dr. Mary Brolin and Dr. Jan Yost, contributed a chapter on using empowerment evaluation on a projected funded by THFCM, in R. Kilmer and J. Cook (Eds.), Evaluation research: Partnership approaches for community change to be published by Sage Publications in summer 2019. In 2008, Dr. Imm and her colleagues received the 2008 American Evaluation Association Award for Outstanding Publication for Getting to Outcomes: Methods and Tools for Self-Assessment and Accountability. A number of communities, states, and nonprofit organizations around the nation have adopted the Getting to Outcomes model as a way to obtain positive results. In 2015, Dr. Imm was awarded the Distinguished Contributions to Practice in Community Psychology by Division 27 of the American Psychological Association.
Case Examples Presented By:
Dr. Mary Brolin (Brandeis University)
Dr. Emily Rothman (Boston University)
