Power 50
Women of Color Leadership Program
“Working with Zuri has completely upended all my notions of evaluation. What I had previously thought of and experienced as a test administered by a distant hand and delivered to a third party, Zuri transformed into a collaborative process of discovery, creation, learning, and joy. As someone piloting a new program, she was instrumental in helping me zero in on goals that were both measurable and transformative.
She then worked closely with our design team to make sure our activities truly spoke to those goals. Zuri built relationships with our participants that invited honesty when traditional evaluators might fear compromising it. And her beautiful, narrative reporting at the close of the pilot balanced heart with rigor in a way that so perfectly aligned with the culture of our program.”
— Trish Tchume
Community Change, Director of Leadership Development
THE CHALLENGE
Power 50 was conceived shortly after 4.6 million Americans participated in the women’s march in 2017. It was implemented as the first two muslim women, two native american women, and the first black congresswomen for Connecticut and Massachusetts entered the 116th congress. At this critical time, Power 50 emerged as a resource for visionary women organizing for social change. The approach did not set out to increase the capabilities of the participants but to provide the optimal conditions for the ripening of their visions. The challenge was to create metrics with the goal of 1) measuring program implementation effects on participants 2) assessing the extent of leadership development of participants and 3) documenting the theory building and knowledge creation of women of color.
THE APPROACH
Traditional numeric metrics were ill-suited to capture the outcomes of Power 50. Measuring changes in areas such as consciousness, leadership development, and attitude are complex yet vital to understanding the influence of these types of programs. We utilized a mixed-methods approach including surveys with evaluative vignettes, ethnographic observation, interviews, and focus groups to capture what sociologists call “thick description”. The Social Insights team used a rigorous social - scientific approach to analyze the data, including qualitative coding and statistical analyses, when appropriate. The resulting metrics and tools captured the depth and nuance of change in the program participants.
HIGHLIGHTS
1) Participants engaged in evaluation activities over 9 months.
2) Final deliverables included a presentation with infographics and key findings to share with multiple audiences.
3) Transformational outcomes were measured using the women’s own words.
“ [I gained] clarity on my vision for myself as it relates to my current organizing work as well as beyond my current org and position. This was vital and what I was most lacking in.”
“Since Power 50, I've been pushing myself to think more openly about how to support the growth of staff by asking them to ID their own solutions to an issue or strategy instead of telling them what I want to happen.”