Empowerment Evaluation Model

Choosing the Empowerment Evaluation Model

There are a number of types of evaluation models that serve a variety of purposes. Each model

has a purpose, and each model plays an important role in the field of evaluation. Therefore, it is

important to determine who wants to know the answers to what questions, and for what purpose.

The level of resources available also needs to be considered when making these decisions.

When is it appropriate to use empowerment evaluation? The purpose of empowerment

evaluation is to assist program staff in conducting a self-assessment of their program services and

to use the evaluation results for program improvement. Therefore, the evaluation questions that

program staff might ask include:

1. Do the services provided to the community meet the needs identified prior to providing

these services?

2. Can the program services be improved so that the quality of services offered to the community

increases?

There are three advantages in using the empowerment evaluation. These advantages support

the premise of this book that evaluation and program development go hand in hand.

First, because program staff will be involved in conducting the evaluation, the cost of conducting

empowerment evaluation will be minimal as compared to contracting with an independent

(outside) evaluator.

Second,