aes19 International Evaluation Conference

Jade Maloney (ARTD)

In the disability sector, there is growing advocacy for the philosophy of 'nothing about us without us', while in the mental health sector, peer delivery and peer research are important. Recognising the rights of people with lived experience to influence the policies and programs that affect their lives, organisations have turned to co-design, co-production and co-delivery.

As evaluators, we need not only to evolve our methodologies to appropriately assess these ways of working, but to ensure our approaches uphold the philosophy. That is, to ensure we recognise the expertise of people with lived experience and engage them in our processes.

To do this, we need to challenge traditional power dynamics that come with the concept of evaluator as expert outsider. We can draw from the toolboxes of collaborative, participatory and empowerment evaluation, as well as design. But when is it right to use each of these approaches? What do they look like in practice across the stages of an evaluation? And what can you do to engage genuinely when you have limited time and are working with geographical, cultural and communications differences?
This presentation provides practical ideas for harnessing the power of co in different contexts from projects with organisations working with people with autism, dementia, psychosocial disability and intellectual disability, across locations and cultures. Our ideas cover the design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and reporting phases, with options for when you have years versus weeks or days. We also identify considerations for accessibility and inclusion, and lessons we have learned the hard way.

The examples illustrate the value that lived experience has brought to our practice, and what we have had to bring to make this possible. For evaluation to be a gift - the exchange must be two way - we must receive as well as give.