communityevaluationsolutions

There are words I really hate right now.

First is the C-word. Along with that nasty little picture of the virus. I also hate the p-word, the s-  d- word, and the term F-T-C. I hate the term “living in the time of uncertainty.” I hate them so much I don’t even want to spell them out. 

What I really hate, though, is when people talk about “returning to normal.” My email and social media feeds are inundated with things I need to know about, funding sources, business opportunities, how things will be different and dire warnings that I better get ready.  There are also several articles on how to make money during the crisis. 

The last thing I want to think about right now is what I should be doing businesswise. 

What do I think about?

My family. We have not seen them for a month now. We have two little grans and this separation is HARD.

My clients and community coalitions and collaboratives I work with and what can I possibly do to support them. They are working 24/7 to get people in their communities fed. Many are rural communities where there is no wi-fi, no laptops for students, and where transportation and healthcare access are a constant struggle when things are going well. I think about past clients and wonder if they are doing OK. 

When I wake up in the middle of the night, which is just about every night, my thoughts turn to those who are sick and dying alone without their families. I think about the nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, janitorial staff and pray for them.

I think about how I am being called to change. What I need to let go of and what I want to take forward. That means choosing the people I want in my life, those that love me in spite of myself, just as I am. It also means really wrestling with the type of work I want to do and making some hard choices. 

Finally, I think about how this country and how the world needs to change. I really hope when the light switches to go, we don’t all rush back to the life we knew. I hope people really don’t fall for what is being sold right now, gaslighting it’s called in case you didn’t know. 

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to return to normal.

If it’s not abundantly clear by now, there are some deep-seeded inequities in our country. Black and brown people are getting sick and dying at higher rates than more affluent white Americans. My colleague Amanda Klein wrote a recent blog about this. 

And it should be crystal clear that isolationism as a national policy does not work. Viruses just don’t give a —- about borders. One can only imagine how a global response to a global pandemic might have changed the course of the last five months and how many lives could have been saved. 

So no, I don’t want us to return to normal. I want us to use this an opportunity to change, to create systems and social structures that create deep and lasting equity and a world where we work together for the common good. One can dream, right? If anything, this crisis should teach us that we are all connected. 

A failure to plan……

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, writer and pioneering aviator

Two things people who know me will tell you is that I love to cook and I love to travel. I am purposefully working through my bucket list and it is very long list!

For a long time, Alaska has been one of the places I most wanted to see. So, this past summer, I finally made it happen. My family and I spent two weeks driving the interior of Alaska. The trip involved 23 hours of driving, two small plane flights, 3 national parks, a ferry ride, and a hike on a glacier. I planned this trip for about 8 months. I read about the “Last Frontier,” I spoke with friends who had made the trip, followed bloggers and spent hours researching on the internet.

We had an amazing adventure. We ate some of the freshest seafood I have ever had –and that is saying a lot since I grew up in Florida. We saw wildlife and glacier after glacier. We met some amazing people that I don’t think I will ever forget.

And then this happened…….
I promise I did not use a filter on this picture. This gloomy shot was the result of one of the many fires that burned in Alaska this summer. Record temperatures and dry conditions created fires later in the season than ever before, damaging thousands of acres, destroying property and contributing to air pollution. In Alaska, climate change is a reality, not just a political argument.

For my family, the impact was a disappointing inconvenience. It meant a 3-hour wait in traffic on Sterling Highway only to be turned around when the Swan Lake fire jumped the road. We were forced to regroup and punt since the Homer leg of our trip was just not going to happen. We made the decision to head back to Anchorage. Unbeknownst to us, there was another fire between Denali and Fairbanks, causing smoke to hang over Anchorage for the rest of our trip.

But life is like that right? We make a plan, we do the research, invest the time, but things just don’t turn out the way we want.

In community work, things like this happen all the time. Its hard to get a group of community members, all representing different organizations with different agendas, to envision a common purpose for their community. It is just like herding cats.

That’s why I find logic models so darn helpful. They may be despised by some, but I believe they are despised because they are oftentimes overly complicated. (I certainly have been guilty of creating a few that were way too complicated myself). But I have experienced over and over again a situation in which the program staff and leaders just knew they could explain their program clearly. Until we went through a logic model process, and they couldn’t.

Lately, I hear more nonprofit leaders, coalitions, and collaboratives sighing over the thought of creating yet another logic model. If this is the case, a tearless logic model is a great way to develop a logic model without ever mentioning the words “logic model,” “activities” or “outcomes.”

Another reason logic models are, well lets just go with “not held in high esteem,” is because many nonprofit or community leaders just do not know what to do with it once they have one. Short of using it as training paper for your pup….here is why you might need one and how you should use it.

This list is in honor of the community coordinator who recently asked me, “WHY DO I NEED A LOGIC MODEL” &%$%$!!!!!!.

A logic model helps:

1. Serve as an organizational development tool. It helps your organization define its vision and goals, gets everyone on the same page, and everyone understand where they fit in the work.
2. Explain to others (funders, community members etc.,) in a visual way, what you want to accomplish.
3. Make clear to you (and your board) what to say “Yes” or “No” to.
4. Clarify what is feasible and achievable.
5. Connect the dots so that your work is linked (activities lead to outcomes).
6. Define your evaluation questions.
7. Ensure you have what you need to be successful.
8. Test the “logic” of your program or strategy: Is what you are doing really going to result in the outcomes you propose?
9. Demonstrates your commitment to high quality work.
10. Serve as a program management tool that drives your workplan.
11. Satisfy a funder’s “request” for a logic model.
12. Guide your next step. It is your roadmap when you get lost.

Getting back to my Alaska trip, and I wish I could go back……Because I had done all of that research and had planned so well, when we were thrown that curveball, we could manage our next step. We got out the map, thought through our options, and made the best decision we could under the circumstances.

Working for social change is like that too. Your programs and strategies don’t always turn out the way you planned. You lose that critical funding you were counting on, staff leave, stakeholders come and go, local politics influence your program in not so great ways. Things happen!

Having a logic model is that guidepost you need in order to plan for change. It is the roadmap when things just don’t work out like you planned.

Ready to get started? I promise, no tears.

Hello fellow evaluators! My name is Ann Price and I am President of Community Evaluation Solutions (CES), based in Georgia. This year’s conference theme, Paths to the Future of Evaluation: Contribution, Leadership, Renewal resonates with me. I am often called upon to speak with evaluation classes and frequently meet with evaluators considering consulting as a profession.

CES is a small business and I have come to depend on young evaluators to meet the demands of our work. For the past four years, we have employed a full-time research associate. We employ an intern or practicum student (yes, I pay them!), typically in the summer or fall.

It’s a win – win really. I truly enjoy mentoring early career evaluators and community psychologists. My early career employees get training and a great place to start their career. I typically send my RA and intern to the Summer Institute. They also get training in SPSS, qualitative data analysis, Excel, and data visualization and other skills. They work hard but at a pace that builds their confidence. For my part, I get help meeting my clients’ needs and gain inspiration from their ideas. I derive satisfaction from the knowledge that I helped launch their careers. My past RA’s and students are successful in their current positions. One is in healthcare evaluation, one has a great public health fellowship, one works for Delta doing data analytics, one just got her Master’s in School Psychology, and our last RA, Emily, just entered physical therapy school. Here is Emily’s blog post about her experience at CES.

The hardest part for me of course is saying good bye when they move on. Even so, mentoring early career professionals is something I truly enjoy!

Tips and Tricks: I always suggest informational interviews as a way to build your network. I try and recommend a few people for them to follow up with after our meeting. Once you connect with someone, stay connected by contacting them every few months. Check out my blog written with about networking. You will also find a link to a video blog within the post.

Rad Resources: Whether its coaching or mentoring my RA and interns, I always share my favorite evaluation resources. For those new to consulting, Gail Barington’s book, Consulting Start Up and Management, is a must. For information about creating good data viz, I point them to Stephanie Evergreen and Ann K Emery. Ann also has a pretty nifty Excel course too. Use AEA’s own Potent Presentations to brush up on your presentation’s skills. I have learned a ton from Chris Lysy who recently started Eval Central a place to connect with other evaluators and from the uber-creative Kylie Hutchison.

Training Tips: Attending AEA is a must of course, but don’t forget the Summer Institute in Atlanta. The Institute’s sessions are practical and the smaller setting makes it easy to connect with some great evaluators. At this posting we are 1-week away from the 2019 SI. I will be teaching and hope to see you there!

Baby’s First Job

If you have met me or read my last blog post, you know that I consider myself an introvert (Go Team ISTJ!). My introversion let me stew in my comfort zone for a few years before I decided to branch out and get a little uncomfortable. While working at CES isn’t my first full-time, post-grad job, I will always remember this company as the first step out of my comfort zone, and consequently, the place where I flourished. If you didn’t already know, I am leaving CES in May to pursue a Doctorate in Physical Therapy at the University of North Georgia. As I reflect on the time I’ve spent working with Ann and Sally, I wanted to highlight a few quotes that define the last couple of years of my life.

I worked in the same place during undergraduate and graduate school, then again when I graduated with my MPH. The job had nothing to do with the degrees I was pursuing, but I was good at it and I enjoyed it. It took me a long time to understand that being good at something doesn’t mean that something is good for you. When I left that job, I had no plans for where I would go or what I would do; I just needed room to grow. Luckily, after a little bouncing around, I ended up here at CES. Ann and Sally both mentored and supported me, but allowed me room to grow into who I am now. I came to Ann with little to no evaluation experience, and she molded me into an evaluator I am proud to be. Taking a chance and stepping out of my comfort zone has led to an amazing experience that I would not trade for the world.

Not to be dramatic, but working at CES changed how I view the world. I never realized how narrow-minded I was when it came to serving others until I saw all the ways our clients serve their communities. Service is unlimited. To quote a blog I posted for MLK, Jr. day in 2018: “Something I recently discovered is that there isn’t one right way to make a difference. Whether you have mobilized people for a cause, mentored a young child, or given your time to a local non-profit organization, you are significant, and the impact you are having matters. One of my favorite things about working for CES is our tagline: Partnering for Social Change. Our clients are all working to better their communities, and I am so grateful to be a part of that process.” Ann, Sally, and every single one of our clients serve in unique ways, and seeing this has allowed me to accept the fact that my service doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s to be important.

Have you read Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis? I might be the only millennial woman who hasn’t, but Ann keeps telling me I need to. I think the one thing that working at CES has taught me more than anything else is confidence. Ann is fearless. She’s strong, smart, and stands up for what she wants and believes. While I’ve known women like this throughout my life, Ann is the first one to truly invest in me personally, not just professionally. I will never forget my first employee review at CES (I was terrified, in case you were wondering). Ann told me to stick up for myself and not be afraid to say what I am thinking. Internally, I thought “well, I might as well tack on ‘learn to fly’ to the list of unrealistic expectations and just call this one a loss.” Lucky for me, Ann wasn’t going to let that happen. She allowed me to work independently but was there when I needed help. She affirmed that my voice was just as important as anyone else’s in the room. She made sure I had opportunities to strengthen my relationships with our clients and to network with others in the fields of public health and evaluation. She made me realize my self-worth.

As I enter a new field and end this chapter in my life, all I can do is think about how grateful I am that Ann and Sally took a chance on me, and how lucky the next girl will be.

Not sure what the weather is like where you are, but here in Georgia, its raining. AGAIN! I think it has been raining for 6 weeks straight. We are on track to have the second rainiest season Georgia has ever had so I may not be exaggerating all that much.

Many years ago, my husband and I visited on of my sisters in Oregon. It was a rare week there; it was sunny and mild and oh-so green. Dan was just about to pack up and head to out west when my sister said, “Dan, there is a reason it is so green.” That is so true right? We cannot have green grass and healthy crops without rain and everyone knows that Oregon gets a lot of it.

Last year at this time I wrote about Seasons. So much in my personal life was changing. I had big decisions to make about the business too. No doubt, the same will be true in 2019. That is just the nature of life.

When I look at my vision board from last year (and no, you can’t see it), there are just a few major goals I realized. There is so much more I want to accomplish, both personally and professionally and the time seems to pass more quickly each day. Can you relate?

There is so much good work that needs to be done in the world.

So, I resolve to get to work to make a difference. I hope to be kinder and healthier; to laugh more and take more time off. I hope to add more joy and less stress to any situation I am in. I want to help you and others do good work, the kind that really changes communities. Here are CES we are recommitting to our tag line, Partnering for Social Change. Won’t you join us?