Engaging practitioners and academic researchers in co-developing evaluation measures for community violence...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Criminology
• Program Evaluation

Background:

• Community violence intervention (CVI) is crucial for public safety, yet its research and evaluation are underdeveloped.
• There's a need for evaluation measures co-developed with practitioners to capture nuanced CVI impacts.
• This paper details a partnership to create youth-focused CVI evaluation measures in Washington state.

Purpose of the Study:

• To co-develop robust, youth-focused evaluation measures for community violence intervention programs.
• To prioritize practitioner expertise and community needs in measure development.
• To create a usable toolkit for enhancing CVI program evaluation.

Main Methods:

• A two-phase practitioner-academic partnership was employed.
• Phase 1 involved creating a menu of 60 quantitative measures by integrating literature and practitioner insights.
• Phase 2 refined these measures through 45 meetings with 7 CVI programs over 10 months, considering confidentiality, age-appropriateness, and language.

Main Results:

• Customized lists of quantitative and qualitative evaluation measures were developed for each participating CVI program.
• Discussions focused on practical considerations like confidentiality and age-appropriateness.
• An accompanying online toolkit was created for broader use and adaptation.

Conclusions:

• The co-development process prioritized practitioner knowledge, leading to contextually relevant measures.
• This collaborative approach enhances power sharing and responsiveness to community needs.
• The study encourages practitioner-academic partnerships to advance CVI understanding and effectiveness.