Program Outcomes for Communities

Citizen Development 
 
Example of an Evaluation of Citizen Development
Lisa Cassidy

The following illustration provides an example of how one might evaluate citizen development in a program designed to reduce vandalism in one community:

A community in Beautiful, NC was having a growing problem with vandalism in their neighborhoods. The local Cooperative Extension Agent knew that in order for any action to take place, local citizens would need to be mobilized around the issue. She decided to form a task force of community group and agency representatives to design and implement a program to mobilize the community around the issue of reducing vandalism. To evaluate this program's effects on the mobilization of citizens in the community, the program leaders decided to evaluate their efforts in each of the components of citizen development (In reality, evaluating each component would be overkill!).

They first looked at the area of human capital. The goal of this area of citizen development is that local citizens will gain knowledge, awareness, and skills to bring about change in the community. Their program provided many training workshops to educate community members about research related to vandalism prevention and different strategies that had been used by other communities to reduce vandalism. The program also provided community members with training on how to bring about change in their community. After a series of workshops, the program evaluators surveyed community members using the "Evaluation of Citizen Action Training" survey to ascertain whether they had actually improved their human capital (knowledge, skills, etc.).

The agent also knew that having the knowledge to tackle a community issue is only half the problem and that there also needs to be community resources and structures that facilitate community development. After a needs assessment showed a need to do some work in this area, the agent worked with the group to develop the community's environmental capital. The goal of developing environmental capital is that the community will improve its ability to address and meet the needs of its members. The agent and the group organized public forums around the issue and rallied the support of local businesses. To assess the change in local resources facilitating change, evaluators decided to perform a content analysis of local paper, newsletters, etc. to determine whether there was an increase in the number of opportunities for public discussion in an organized setting. Finally, they surveyed community members using the Mobilization Scale to determine whether the program had improved participants' general perceptions of environmental capital.

The program evaluators next decided to evaluate citizen empowerment. The goal of this area of citizen development is to increase local citizens' confidence in their ability to make a difference in their community. Evaluators surveyed many community members using the Mobilization Scale to determine whether citizens had gained attitudes suggesting that they believed that they could make a difference in their community (i.e., that they had the capacity, and that there were community mechanisms to make community change possible). To evaluate the extent to which citizens had opportunities to influence the program, evaluators used the Citizen Participation chart. Evaluators determined that the program, although not utilizing full citizen control, still facilitated the community group's involvement in program planning and implementation. In addition, citizens were also involved through the use if community forums.

The program evaluators next decided to evaluate desire. The goal of this area of citizen development is to increase citizens' perception of the importance and seriousness of community activities and problems so they will want to get involved. Evaluators interviewed community members to determine whether their perceptions of the seriousness of community problems related to vandalism had increased as a result of the program. They also interviewed community members to determine whether their perception of the importance of this type of community program had changed and whether they had a greater desire to get involved as a result of the program.

The evaluators next decided to evaluate motivation. The goal of this area of citizen development is to increase the level of motivation so that community members will be more willing to participate in community activities. Therefore, evaluators interviewed community members to determine whether they felt that there was any personal incentive to get involved in community activities and whether they were willing to become involved. In addition, evaluators surveyed community members with the Mobilization Scale.

Finally, the evaluators decided to evaluate citizen participation. The goals of this area of citizen development are to increase the mobilization of citizens and to strengthen community relationships and communication to encourage participation. Therefore, evaluators took a numerical tally of volunteer participation patterns and surveyed citizens using the Mobilization Scale to determine if they were more mobilized as a result of the program. They also used the Levels of Participation Chart (Jakes, 1998) to determine whether levels of participation had changed as a result of the program.

The above illustration provides a comprehensive example of how one might evaluate all components of citizen development. In real life, one would set a goal of focusing on only one or two aspects of citizen development and then proceed with an evaluation and that particular level.