Looking back and moving forward: Lessons from our first 30 years

As 2020 draws to a close, we are reflecting on the year that marked CCHE’s 30th anniversary of conducting community-based evaluations. We started off by compiling and sharing with you an overview of our project work and evolution through this interactive timeline. Throughout the year we shared learnings and highlighted some of the tools and resources that we have created, including population dose, the Measuring What Matters evaluation capacity building curriculum, our coalition model, and policy spectrum. We also highlighted some of our recent work and results from our evaluations on initiatives that build quality improvement capacity in the safety net, enhance the skills of public health leaders, support trauma- and resilience-informed care, and confront systemic racism.  

This year pushed us in new ways as we shifted to an entirely virtual work environment, adapted our evaluation plans to reflect the needs of communities as they respond to COVID-19, and made explicit our commitment to racial justice. We are pleased to share our reflections in this brief, Evaluating Ourselves, which shares some of our resources and the lessons that have shaped how we do our work, including:

• The importance of using evaluation for learning
• Building relationships and trust
• Understanding and navigating the unique context of each evaluation
• Building capacity and customized tools
• Making explicit our social justice and racial equity values

Looking ahead, we remain committed to living these values.  We commit to showing up with curiosity, being willing to adapt, and having the patience to listen. We believe this approach to evaluation is critical to ensure that evaluation findings can be used to drive changes toward a better world.

To view the full report click here.