Module 6: HIV Prevention Evaluation for Native Communities

Goal of Module 6: To provide an evaluation framework for your HIV prevention intervention program.

In order to provide an effective HIV prevention intervention for Native people, you will need to ensure that a solid, culturally relevant evaluation plan informs your program from beginning to end. Program evaluation can help determine whether your HIV prevention intervention program is accomplishing what it set out to accomplish. This module includes an overview of helpful cultural components that effect evaluation, hands-on considerations, evaluation steps and tools, and avenues to share lessons learned to help you build an effective evaluation for your HIV prevention intervention program.

Contents 3a Engaging Stakeholders

This module helps you to create and conduct evaluation of your HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention program.

It includes information on:

1.


Key Concepts to Guide Evaluation

2.
Hands-On Considerations
3.
Evaluation Steps

Stakeholders are the people and organizations that are invested in the program – their investment can be similar or different from each others’. For example, participants of a program are stakeholders. Participants’ interest in a program may be on a personal level, i.e., “Is the program meeting my needs?” Funders’ interest in a program may be on a financial level, i.e., “Is the implementation of the program conducted in a fiscally sound manner?”

Essentially, there are three groups of stakeholders who should be included at every step of the evaluation:

  • Individuals or groups served by the program
  • Individuals or organizations involved in the actual operations of the program such as staff, partners, funders
  • Intended users of the evaluation findings such as policy makers, funding agencies, taxpayers

While we know intuitively that “friends” of the program should be stakeholders, don’t forget about critics of your program. Engaging your critics in the program as stakeholders helps generate buy-in and promote understanding – and you might be surprised at the level of assistance you receive from them throughout the evaluation process.

Strategies to engage stakeholders:

  • Utilize your community Planning Committee (see Module 5: Conducting a Community Services Assessment for more information on planning committees) to help you engage your stakeholders and/or provide networks and connections to reaching other stakeholders
  • Develop an evaluation advisory committee
  • Hold a Community Forum or Town Hall meeting with the urban or tribal community stakeholders
  • Organize face to face meetings with key stakeholders
  • Outreach to the hard to reach stakeholders (e.g. elders, youth, injection drug users, etc.)
  • Think about your program and list all of the stakeholders and their role in your program (Remember: stakeholders include clients, partners, collaborating organizations/agencies, funders, decision-makers, tribes/tribal organizations, elders, volunteers, and critics.).
  • For each type of stakeholder in your program (shown below) list two issues which could be addressed through the evaluation process:
    • Participants of your program
    • Funders of your program
    • Legislators
  • Consider the strategies above and list a few strategies that may work for each of the stakeholders you listed.