The Evaluation Association of St. Louis has been very happy to accommodate you and your colleagues for some of our recent EASL events. 

EVALpalooza I: Evaluation Failures with Kylie Hutchinson
and Thought Leaders

Date/Time: September 24, noon - 4 p.m. (CDT)

Cost: $149 for affiliate members, $199 for general public

Registration Link: https://easl.wildapricot.org/event-3870521

To obtain the Affiliate Discount Registration Code, sign-in into your MNEA member account here.

(Please register by 9/9/2020 for the discount)

The Evaluation Association of St. Louis has been very happy to accommodate you and your colleagues for some of our recent EASL events. 

The Conducting Community Health Needs Assessments session is a collaboration between EASL and  the Greater Boston Evaluation Network. EVALpalooza is a totally new conference opportunity that we are initiating with Kylie Hutchinson and several of her thought leader colleagues.

Conducting Community Health Needs Assessments

Date/Time: September 9, 12:30 - 2 p.m. (CDT)

Cost: $0

Registration Link: https://easl.wildapricot.org/event-3949379

To obtain the Affiliate Discount Registration Code, sign-in into your MNEA member account here.

Online Professional Development Workshop Series August 14-22, 2020 Registration is now open for 18 one day online workshops this summer! For the daily schedule and course descriptions please click here:  https://research.cgu.edu/claremont-evaluation-center/professional-development-workshops/workshop-descriptions/ There is limited enrollment so please register ASAP on a first come, first served basis using the link below: https://research.cgu.edu/claremont-evaluation-center/professional-development-workshops/summer-workshops-registration-rates-scholarships/ For any further questioms, please contact Jessica Renger (jessica.renger@cgu.edu) for more details.

Are you aware of Evalpalooza, an interactive online meeting that the Evaluation Association of St. Louis and the Chicagoland Evaluation Association are sponsoring? Our first Evalpalooza will be Evaluation Failures with Kylie Hutchinson and Thought Leaders. Evalpalooza is a 4 hour long focused, interactive, small, virtual session facilitated by evaluation thought leaders around a key topic. Sessions are limited to only 100 individuals (including presenters), are conducted via Zoom, and are interactive. (Yes, you are expected to interact!) Registration for Evalpalooza is open to the public.

The session will be held via Zoom Conference Calls on September 24, 2020 from noon – 4 p.m. CDT (with a virtual happy hour to follow). You can learn more and register at the following link:

https://easl.wildapricot.org/event-3870521

LEADING COURAGEOUSLY IN THE HUMAN SERVICE SECTOR 2020 SUMMER SERIES

The Summer Series continues to grow leaders to be versed in participatory practices that engage whole family systems, to lead with practices that are centered on the voices of those most impacted by racial and systemic injustice, and to engage our communities to create the changes that we need. No matter if you are a seasoned practitioner or are simply curious, we welcome you to join us. All workshops will be held virtually.

Through generous support from the Kresge Foundation, Future Services Institute is committed to making these workshops accessible for all who want to participate. Registration fees for each workshop: Register Today

• $25 Pay it Forward (for well-resourced organizations, covering costs of this workshop and contribute to our scholarship pool) • $15 Nonprofit/Student (for smaller nonprofit organizations or students) • $0 (For community or grassroots organizations who wouldn’t be able to participate without financial support)

Coming up first... ONLINE HOSTING PRACTICES THAT WORK JULY 21, 2020 from 9:00 am – 11:00 am Hosted by: Sook Jin Ong and Rosalva Mujwid Hernandez Register Today Now that we are working virtually, how might we facilitate powerful conversations that are engaging? What tools are at our disposal? What are some ways you can translate your hosting practice onto new platforms? Boost your online hosting practices by experiencing some of your own tips with fellow practitioners.

Next up... ONLINE COLLECTIVE SENSE-MAKING JULY 29, 2020 from 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Hosted by: Marcela Sotela and Jen Mein Register Today Planning and designing ways to engage participants to make meaning together, make collective insights visible, have artifacts to move forward wiser action. Use online tools to invite, capture and share all participants’ voices. Explore different levels of sensemaking from the individual to the larger collective through reflective practices. Let’s connect, share, and learn TOGETHER!

Later... RESEARCH AND EVALUTION IN UNCERTAIN AND CHANGING TIMES AUGUST 10, 2020 10:00 am – 12:00 pm Hosted by: Henriet Hendriks and Trupti Sarode Register Today Our world has shifted in many ways, COVID-19 has exacerbated racial inequalities before the murder of George Floyd further challenged all of us in different ways, laying bare the systemic racism in our institutions. The very institutions that are charged with doing research and evaluation. How do we answer the ethical, conceptual and methodological challenges around conducting research and evaluation in times of local and global unrest? How has the role of an evaluator and researcher changed throughout these times? What are some tools and methods that help uphold equity, fairness, and justice?

And Lastly... OPEN SPACE SESSION ON EQUITY IN THE HUMAN SERVICES SECTOR TUESDAY, AUGUST 18th 1pm – 4pm Hosted by: Donte Curtis, Ashley Bennett, and Katie Boone  Register Today Given the era of COVID and the racial injustice of George Floyd’s murder, what are the conversations we need to have now to ground our systems change work towards creating equity, inclusion and justice for all?

COVID-19 has impacted us all in different ways. While many organizations are urgently responding to communities to provide support, others have put their work on hold or are making innovative adjustments to adapt to safe social distancing guidelines. Whether your work has evolved to respond to the pandemic, or you are finding yourself with extra time to dust off and update your old logic model, The Improve Group’s upcoming 4-hour virtual workshop on logic models can benefit you. 

As you know, logic models are instrumental in guiding evaluation and reporting activities. They can also help your team build consensus around assumptions and create cohesion about how you think about and communicate your program. With this workshop, The Improve Group will explain the “why” and “how” of using logic models! Following the workshop, you can register to spend additional one-on-one time working with our trainers to develop your logic model. Our training meets you where you are—no previous logic model expertise required.

For more information on the benefits of having a logic model, check out this video from IG CEO Leah Goldstein Moses!

If this sounds like something that would benefit your program or organization, you can learn more and register here!

Coming Soon: The Improve Group is introducing a training on survey planning and development, which will be held on August 19. We’ll follow-up with more details in the coming weeks but wanted to notify you of the date ahead of time!

Learn Together, While Apart

Register for the AEA Summer Learning Series  Inspired by the lessons of the Summer Evaluation Institute, AEA has transformed five of our Summer Evaluation workshops into in-depth and interactive digital workshops to support the continual learning and growth of our community.

What Makes the Summer Learning Series Different?

AEA is working hard to transform in-person workshop content into valuable digital workshops that have clear distinctions from typical webinars. The Summer Learning Series features:  Meaningful discussions with your peers allowing for thorough understanding of the topic  Opportunity to work through case studies and see how the topic can be applied to your practice Designated time for question and answers to allow you to work through foreseen challenges or brainstorm solutions with the group or presenter Curated speakers from across the field of evaluation who are subject matter experts and experienced in workshop facilitation  Plan your summer education schedule with our five digital workshops:

Adding Costs to Help Your Evaluation Get Used: Cost-Effectiveness and Cost-Benefit Analyses for Health and Human Services  12:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST See full description.

Mixed Methods Design in Evaluation 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST See full description.

Interactive Dashboards Using Excel and Google Sheets 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST See full description.

You Built it. Why Won’t They Come? Evaluation Capacity Building 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST See full description.

Visual Note-Taking 101: Encouraging Dynamic Participation through Visual Storytelling 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST See full description.

To participate in these digital workshops, all you need is a reliable internet connection and your computer or laptop. Presenters will communicate If additional materials are needed for their workshop.

Visit the AEA Digital Knowledge Hub to learn more about the Summer Learning Series and other upcoming offerings.  Please contact AEA at info@eval.org if you have any questions.

We’re now inviting more people to join the MERL Center working groups! If you are a MERL practitioner with an interest in or knowledge of open source, or you’re an open source expert with an interest in and knowledge of MERL, we’d love to have you! Please feel free to reach out me with a brief introduction to you and your work, and I’ll help you get on-boarded. We’re excited to have you work with us!   

Learn More