Evaluation & Engagement

Our Approach

Your organization is stronger when it closely reflects the needs and wants of the service population, with those served leading the way. Together we will determine the best tools and methodologies for collecting the community opinions that fuel our qualitative data analyses. Our approach centers around community aspirational thinking; our menu of expert community input methodologies and toolkits to shape our engagement questions and activities includes: *The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2)’s Public Participation Pillars; *Harwood Institute tools of engagement, including the Turning Outward process; *A range of brainstorming methods, giving ample opportunity for individual and group, verbal and non-verbal, and written and kinesthetic options for contributions. A particular favorite is the World Cafe method; *Principles of Design Thinking, including empathy/ecosystem mapping, customer journey mapping, directed storytelling interviews, and prototyping; *Passive collection: post-its, dotting, or other individually interactive methods; *Asset Based Community Development. Many of these tools are best leveraged when leadership and staff are trained in using them and they assist in collecting community opinion. If you choose to follow this route, your participation builds capacity within your organization and ties you more closely to your member libraries. We bring expertise in one-on-one interviews, facilitated group discussions, person-on-the-street surveys, and traditional survey methods. Though we recommend a healthy mix of one-on-one interviews and facilitated focus groups, the tools and methods used will be decided together.

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