Building on the foundations of evaluation practice, this workshop explores what it means to truly involve your community and stakeholders in the evaluation process. We'll examine why participatory approaches lead to richer, more credible and useful evidence, and how to move beyond tokenistic consultation towards evaluation that genuinely centres the voices of the people closest to your programs.

Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to strengthen your existing practice, you'll leave with concrete strategies for making your evaluation more collaborative, more ethical, and more meaningful.

Learning outcomes:

Explain what participatory and community engaged evaluation is and how it differs from more traditional approaches
Learn about some best practice evidence-based approaches to community participation
Recognise and respond to common challenges in participatory evaluation, including issues of power, representation and resource constraints
Develop a plan for strengthening community and stakeholder participation in their existing evaluation practice.

Lunch and light refreshments will be provided.

Dr Katie Blair – Research and Evaluation Manager, Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, UTS

Dr Katie Blair has extensive experience designing and managing evaluations, from complex state-wide government programs to local community initiatives. She specialises in collaborative frameworks, working seamlessly with diverse stakeholders, from government, academia, industry and community, to foster inclusive and equitable outcomes. Katie excels at embedding evaluation practices, developing innovative methodologies aligned with strategic goals, and building organisational capacity. Passionate about community empowerment, she brings a deep commitment to fostering shared decision-making and driving impactful, evidence-based solutions that respond to evolving community needs.

Hannah Morgan – Research and Evaluation Officer, Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, UTS

Hannah Morgan is a Social Worker and evaluator with over 15 years’ experience across health, government, community, and non-profit sectors. Hannah completed a Master of Evaluation, driven by a curiosity to understand how best to measure and demonstrate impact. Hannah’s evaluation work emphasises codesign, participatory research, and trauma-informed practice especially when working alongside marginalised communities. Hannah brings a strong social justice lens to evaluation, advocating that evaluation offers a way to demonstrate accountability, uplift community voices and increase ownership and use of evaluation findings.

Contact the host of Evaluation with, not on: Including community and stakeholders in evaluation