Pathways to Resilience III: Beyond Nature vs. Nurture

Abstract #301
 Evaluating Multi-Sector Collaboration to Promote Resilience
Presenter: Judy Gillespie
Abstract:
Multi-sector collaborations, with their capacity for boundary spanning communication, cooperation, and coordination, can promote resilience for at-risk children/youth, and families, increasing inclusion and access to resources. But such collaborations are difficult to establish and sustain. They require considerable commitment of time and resources. Participants and funders must perceive value for their investment, rendering evidence of impacts and outcomes increasingly important. Yet, conventional evaluation tools appear to have limited capacity to assist in the development of this evidence. Are multi-sector collaborations simply too messy, too unruly to be tamed by scientific methods of research and evaluation? Or, do we require more creative approaches to evaluation design, perhaps even to the kinds of evidence we are seeking to obtain? How might critical and participatory epistemologies assist in this endeavor? Using the example of multi-sector collaboration to address Aboriginal well-being, this presentation examines the challenges of evaluating their impacts and outcomes while highlighting promising approaches. Participants will be invited to consider and respond to the above questions through their own experience and insights. The presentation is intended to be part of a larger discussion concerning evaluation of community interventions that will be of interest to community practitioners, policy-makers, funders, and researchers.