Evaluation is a core function of PAN’s programs and services and is also a key value we bring to all of our work. Building a learning-based organization that fosters curiosity, innovation, and data-driven changes is what allows PAN to grow and adapt programming. We also work to support members and allies to further build a culture of evaluation across the province.
The CIHR Centre for REACH has provided foundational resources that supported us to establish and grow evaluation work at PAN and to build evaluation capacity across BC. PAN has successfully supported a number of evaluation projects through grants and fee-for-service contracts by leveraging REACH’s infrastructure and resources. Through this work, PAN has contributed to building a stronger culture of evaluation in BC and enhanced collective capacity for evidence-informed program planning and implementation, especially at the level of community-based services and programs. Between October 2018 and September 2019, PAN had the pleasure of providing evaluation supports and services to the following members and partners: Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA), Interior Health, Northern Health, ANKORS, Vancouver Friends For Life, Central Interior Native Health Society, Vancouver Sex Work Community Alliance, and the National PLDI Community Alliance.
Paul Kerber and Janice Duddy
In embracing our value in evidence-informed program planning and data-driven adaptations, PAN ensures to evaluate all of our own programs and services. We evaluate our backbone support for the PHSA Collective Impact Network; our webinars; and all of our conferences and trainings including the Positive Leadership Development Institute (PLDI) program, Regional Trainings, Educators’ Forum, and Human Rights Education Project (HREP) on an ongoing basis to learn how to better serve PAN members and allies. Using the evaluation findings, PAN strives to remain responsive to our members’ and allies’ needs within the ever-shifting contexts and resources. For example, the evaluation of PAN’s 2018 Fall Conference has led to a renewed approach to PAN’s provincial events and how we bring the PAN community together this year.
Another way PAN ensures that our members’ and allies’ feedback and voices are heard and reflected in our work is through annual Members’ and Stakeholders’ Survey. This is a vital tool that allows us to evaluate our programs and services, progress on strategic goals, network health, ongoing communication with members, and more! All PAN members are expected to take part in this annual survey.
PAN also continued our contribution in building evaluation skills and capacity across the province. Much of this year’s capacity building work has been focused on thinking about and sharing our approach and sharing our learning about participatory evaluation. The PAN team presented a demonstration session on Participatory Approach to Evaluation at the 2018 CESBC Conference. This was a great opportunity for us to share how we implemented a participatory impact evaluation for the PLDI program at PAN and what we learned in the process. To support other evaluation teams who might be interested in taking a participatory approach, we developed and disseminated a Participatory Evaluation Checklist.
Furthermore, in partnership with the Universities Without Walls team, PAN supported the development of an eLearning module on Participatory Evaluation. This is a multi-chapter learning experience that you can complete at your own pace.
PAN’s evaluation team is continuing to explore other ways to build evaluation capacity in the province and is looking forward to another busy year ahead!
We are grateful to our talented Evaluation Team members, Mona Lee and Paul Kerber. We would like to thank the CIHR Centre for REACH in HIV/AIDS for the funding and support of our foundational evaluation work and are grateful to other clients we have worked with on evaluation projects.
For more information, contact Janice Duddy, Director of Evaluation and Community-Based Research, [email protected]
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