“Too often, evaluation is an afterthought or completed only as a funding requirement. The results of evaluation, however, are most important for those involved in the work—community members and staff working on the campaign. We have found in our program that when we take the time to evaluate the results of different aspect of our program together that it provides us with direction and encourages innovation. Furthermore, we are more informed and can speak confidently with policy-makers, have real input into how local programs and services are developed and can actually make a difference in reducing domestic and dating violence in our community.”

Debbie Arthur, City of Berkeley Public Health Department,
Domestic Violence Prevention Program
Quoted in Evaluation Handbook for Community Mobilization: Evaluating Domestic Violence Activism. Marin Abused Women’s Services. San Rafael, CA, 2000. 

How do you measure the impact of planting or watering a seed? 

“In prevention work, we are planting and watering seeds of change – we are trying to change people’s knowledge and behaviors related to the acceptability of domestic violence. Every action we take has an impact. When making the case for our prevention work, we need to demonstrate that all of these prevention-oriented actions, including those of our program as well as other events in the community, when seen as a whole, combine to create the desired outcome – a reduction in the number and severity of domestic violence incidents. While we can’t always take credit for directly reducing domestic violence, we can show through our explanation of underlying causes and theories that our prevention work contributed to these reductions.”

Lisa Hoffman, Domestic Violence Prevention Advocate
Oakland, California.