We are a complex human system committed to social change, although we may have different job titles, backgrounds, or responsibilities. While we have differences, we also have much in common.
We are committed to social justice and equity. We do this by honoring the different cultures, values, and contexts in which people work and live. We lift up voices not always heard. We make power dynamics visible. We want to work with you to make a better world, not better programs.
We thrive in complex, changing environments. Social justice work is hard. The roots of injustice and inequity are long and deep. Traumas from the past live in our bodies and communities and continue to happen to the people around us with every breath. Healing, equity and justice are possible, but the path is neither clear, nor certain. That’s okay. We would rather facilitate and participate in a process that is unruly and true to reality then one that is ordered and predictable but does not illuminate, challenge, or disrupt.
We are guided by our principles. The only way though complexity is a weaving, looping, non-linear path that loops back on itself, crosses raging rivers, and sometimes seems to disappear. Guiding principles help navigate this terrain, reminding us when we’re uncertain, to choose love, light, connection, inspiration, and wholeness.
We value and care about people. Our work together is a deep partnership based on a trusting, empathetic, caring relationship. We will co-create our shared values and guiding principles so we can talk the uncertain terrain together. While every project I engage in has a slightly different set of shared co-created values, all of them place people at the center of the work and believe that a more just world is possible and imperative.
We are dedicated to building the field. Doing evaluation that honors people and complexity, that is co-creative and uncertain, and that unabashedly commits to social justice troubles the field’s social science roots. I work to develop new tools, guides, courses, papers, and training materials that allow more people to engage in this type of evaluation.
With so many approaches to evaluation, how do we choose? The evaluation purpose and evaluation approach should match. Starting out thoughtfully, getting clear how the evaluation will be used and by whom, matters. Creative Evaluation (CE) is a particular type of evaluation that can be a good choice for innovative, collaborative efforts whose aim is systems change. Creative Evaluators lead Creative Evaluations and co-create Creative Engagement. Read more below.
Creative Evaluation (CE) is short-hand for principles-focused, art-infused, developmental evaluation for social change. We facilitate values-based evaluations to make principles-driven change in the world. CE supports innovation and change by illuminating the world as it was, is, and could be, in all of its unpredictability. Evaluation feedback is timely, relevant, meaningful, and grounded in the worldview of those most impacted by the work.
Creative evaluators are guided by deeply held values and shared principles, with an unwavering commitment to making the world more just world. We see the arts and beauty as essential to changing people’s hearts, minds, and ways of being. We partner with people who realize that every change effort is different than every effort that came before, that every day is different than the day before, and that no endeavor will be successful without an open-heart and creative mindset. Evaluation is our calling.
Creative Engagement is a particular way of collaborating for social change. It is co-creative, full sensory, place-based, culturally-grounded, principles-driven, and responsive. It is the weaving together of funders, organizational staff, community members, and creative evaluators, supporting coherent and collaborative change.