Where to find Harder+Company at #eval18

We’re excited to meet with our evaluation colleagues in Cleveland at the upcoming Evaluation 2018, the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association. If you are attending the conference, our staff will be presenting at sessions with clients and partners, covering a wide range of topics.

If you can’t join us at the conference in person, you can follow the conversations on Twitter via the hashtag #eval18, and on our feed @harderco.

Wednesday, October 31

Tools for Mapping Power and Privilege to Advance Equity in Evaluation (Session 57)

Presented by: Cristina Magaña, Sophia Lee, and Tim Morrison

In this professional development workshop, we will offer practical tools that culturally responsive evaluators can use to identify and navigate issues of power and privilege in order to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in settings that may not be receptive or attuned to those values. Learn more here!

Wednesday, October 31 | 12:00pm – 3:00pm | Hilton – Hope Ballroom D

What do project teams need to succeed? Supporting quality work in team-based evaluation practice (Session 2572)

Presented by: Joelle Greene

How can organizational leaders support teams, who are the closest to the work, to anticipate and monitor the threats to high quality work? In this demonstration, we will share an approach to support quality evaluation for project teams via the Technical Insight Process (TIP). Learn more here! Check out our presentation slides!

Wednesday, October 31 | 5:45pm – 6:30pm | CC-11

Thursday, November 1

Privilege Walk 2.0: Innovative adaptations and uses to promote equity in our evaluation practice and organizational learning (Session 2016)

Presented by: Cristina Magaña, Sophia Lee, and Tim Morrison

Our workshop explores the adaptation of the privilege walk tool – frequently used to reflect on privilege (often white privilege) at the detriment of people of color. Workshop attendees will gain hands-on experience on the administration of the adapted privilege walk and practical insights on how to foster individual and organizational reflection around issues of race, power, and privilege within their project teams and client work. Learn more here!

Thursday, November 1 | 8:00am – 9:00am | CC-5

Lifting Up Community Voice: Finding Rigor in Investigative Journalism Techniques (Session 2303)

Presented by: Tim Morrison

In this session, we share insights from two public health case study research projects in California and Florida. Each of these projects borrowed methods from investigative journalism in order to shift power to research participants as they told their own stories, while ensuring a rigorous and systematic approach. Learn more here!

Thursday, November 1 | 1:45pm – 2:30pm | Hilton – Veterans Meeting Room B

Preparing organizations for systems evaluation: Lessons learned from internal and external evaluators (Session 2549)

Presented by: Joelle Greene, Matthew Kronz, and Ellen Marya

In this panel presentation, we will share strategies for preparing organizational leadership, staff, external commissioners, and the public for systems evaluation based on experiences from a large public agency operating in a large Southern California county. Learn more here! Check out our presentation slides!

Thursday, November 1 | 5:00pm – 5:45pm | CC-5

Straight from the Test Lab – A Practical Approach to Integrating Design Thinking into Evaluation (Session 1441)

Presented by: Sophia Lee

During this skill-building workshop, we will share our approach to creating “test labs” that benefited our clients and our practice, including tools (e.g., human-centered interview guides) and products (e.g., learning agendas) developed through the pilot-test. We will also engage participants in hands-on activities that show how to integrate design thinking, empathy, and human-centered design into multiple types of evaluations. Learn more here! Check out our presentation handout!

Thursday, November 1 | 5:00pm – 5:45pm | Hilton – Center St. Meeting Room D

Friday, November 2

Amplifying Voices through Community-led Data Collection (Session 2272)

Presented by: Joelle Greene and Ellen Marya

This demonstration will focus on an approach to community-led data collection that balances rigor and community-centered design. We will share recent project experiences that blended central coordination of research activities with strong community partnership and engagement in facilitating and participating in data collection. Learn more here! Check out our presentation handouts and slides!

Friday, November 2 | 11:30am – 12:15pm | CC-21

Evaluating and Responding to the Needs of Crime Victims (Session 1706)

Presented by: Nicole Bracy

Crime victims have a range of administrative, civil, and criminal legal needs. The Office for Victims of Crime’s initiative, Vision 21: Transforming Victim Services, revealed a need for comprehensive, wraparound, no-cost legal services that can be addressed with a coordinated, collaborative, holistic approach. This panel includes three examples of wraparound legal models developed based on feedback from crime victims and service providers to ensure victims receive legal services. Learn more here!

Friday, November 2 | 2:15pm – 3:15pm | CC-7

The elevation and empowerment of community voices via human-centered design methods: Lessons from the Family Independence Initiative (Session 2499)

Presented by: Cristina Magaña

Our skill-building workshop aligns with this year’s conference theme “Speaking Truth to Power” by showcasing the Family Independence Initiative, which aims to change the narrative and course of low-income and often marginalized families by building individual and community. Human-centered design methods are used to elevate the voices of those who are often left out. Workshop attendees will gain an understanding of human-centered design and receive hands-on experience with the application of this approach. Learn more here!

Friday, November 2 | 5:45pm – 6:45pm | CC-24

Saturday, November 3

Constituent Voice as a Crucial Component of Nonprofit Performance Assessment (Session 2415)

Presented by: Richard Vezina

In this session, we will share an overview of the latest practices related to client feedback. We also describe how the Net Promoter System (NPS) has been tested and used for nonprofit service delivery, and the impact it has had among nonprofits using it. Finally, we will facilitate a discussion about how NPS and other client feedback approaches have been used effectively for different evaluations. Learn more here!

Saturday, November 3 | 11:15am – 12:00pm | Hilton – Hope Ballroom B