At the beginning of May PAN will be launching a new way to explore research and evaluation in what we are affectionately calling the Treehouse, where we will provide research and evaluation inspiration and capacity-building products for you and your team
PAN’s team actively works on both research studies and evaluation projects and we have spent a lot of time learning across these fields. While planning this work our team felt our experiences could be illustrated by two trees – a research tree and an evaluation tree – with separate roots but growing together, intertwined and connected. As these fields of work have evolved over time we feel there are increasing similarities, shared methods and approaches between them. Others have thought about this too, including John LaVelle who developed an hourglass image of the similarities and differences between research and evaluation.
Building on the tree metaphor – the Treehouse sits on the limbs between both the Research and the Evaluation Tree and provides a space for us to come together to learn and build our capacity in both of these areas (and dare we say have a bit of fun).
The inspiration for the Treehouse came from our Board of Directors who asked our team to think about how we could more actively support BC’s community-based organizations in engaging with and doing research and evaluation. So our team set to work to:
- Make learning fun and engaging
- Increase the reach of PAN’s already existing online resources
- Gather, share and amplify new resources or tools from colleagues, allies and other people doing similar work both in BC and across Canada.
The Treehouse will be published once every 6-months and we will work to bring you examples of new and innovative resources, tools, and capacity-building opportunities related to research and evaluation in fun and engaging ways – think of it as a clipping service, or a way to cultivate curiosity and ideas.
If you have ideas to share we would love to hear from you! Be in touch.
Questions? Feedback? Get in touch!
Joanna Mendell, Director of Research and Evaluation
[email protected]