Ideas to actions: the Evaluation Exchange

It is 2022, and to start the new year off, here is a new blog from the Evaluation Exchange. This blog sets out some of the headlines from our second training session, our reflections as we hit the halfway point of our programme and our plans for 2022.

In November and December, we ran the second training workshop for our Evaluation Exchange teams in Newham and Camden, to support our 60 person community in designing and implementing sustainable evaluation practices in the 13 participating organisations. We hoped that the workshop would encourage our amazing teams to reflect on how they are working together and what they are going to do next (as we creep towards the halfway point of their 6 months together!). We also used the workshop as an opportunity to share learning between the teams and discuss specific evaluation issues.

We crafted a number of ‘troubleshooting sessions’ on specific evaluation issues (detailed below) highlighting the skills and expertise within the Evaluation Exchange delivery team (e.g. UCL, Compost and VAC) whilst bringing expertise from our wider network to both inspire and show the variety of approaches to organisational evaluation. We described these sessions as an ‘introduction to and troubleshooting on’ to recognise the range of experience within our Evaluation Exchange community: many of those involved in Evaluation Exchange have specific research skills or have been working at the forefront of service delivery and have implemented a range of evaluation practices. All useful experience to share. We wanted the workshop to be a space for sharing experiences, asking questions and discussing the application of different evaluation practices – with everyone involved in the programme.

When planning our training workshops we, the delivery team, strive to create and facilitate a space where different knowledges and perspectives can be shared and valued – equally. We are keen to make sure that the workshops are structured in a way where different knowledges and perspectives are aired and valued - different disciplines and different forms of knowledge (i.e. research vs practice).

The Evaluation Exchange is part of a larger knowledge exchange project called ISIKLE, funded under an Office for Students/Research England. Within ISIKLE we have been discussing and reflecting upon what is knowledge exchange (and what is effective knowledge exchange). This has been good for us to stop and think about what we do (and why). The term knowledge exchange covers a range of processes – to bring together researchers and the wider external communities. Fazey et al. (2013)[1] state that within definitions of knowledge exchange there is an implication of “a two- or multiple-path process with reciprocity and mutual benefits, maybe with multiple learning, but not necessarily recognition of the equitable value of the different forms of knowledge being exchanged”. A fundamental part of our practice, in the Evaluation Exchange, is the appreciation of different forms of knowledge – and we hope our workshops, and the support we provide to the teams, help to create the conditions for this.

For instance, the agenda for our second workshop was set by our teams. We asked what areas of support was needed – and anyone could put forward ideas to discuss. The sessions in our training workshop were broad and covered:

Photo by Alina Grubnyak on Unsplash