Search Publications |  The Evaluation Exchange |  FINE Network |  OST Database

HFRP > Evaluation > The Evaluation Exchange > Issue Archive > Learning Organizations > Studying Learning Initiatives: The Experience of the Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities National Learning Initiative

Volume IV, Number 3 & 4, 1998

Issue Topic: Learning Organizations

Evaluations to Watch

Studying Learning Initiatives: The Experience of the Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities National Learning Initiative

Andy Mott of Center for Community Change and Vicki Creed of Learning Partners discuss an approach they used to evaluate learning through the National Learning Initiative of the Empowerment Zones/Enterprise Communities Project.

The Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZ/EC) Program, established by the Clinton Administration in 1993, is the most comprehensive federal program in recent years aimed at relieving severe stress in rural and urban areas. The Learning Initiative, developed in 1995 and based at the Community Partnership Center (CPC) of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, was a project designed to pilot a participatory evaluation process in 10 of the 33 rural Empowerment Zones and Enterprise communities. This project was part of an overall movement toward community-based monitoring, which we have termed Community-based Monitoring, Learning, and Action (CMLA). CMLA helps people understand the views and values they share, work through their differences with others, develop longer-term strategies, and take carefully researched and planned actions that fit their contexts, priorities, and styles of operating. It is based in the traditions of community organizing, citizen monitoring, participatory action research, and popular education.

The Learning Initiative was radically different from traditional evaluations that rely on outside experts and that often examine and report on the success or failure of a program very late in its implementation or after its completion. The foundation of the Learning Initiative was composed of Learning Teams comprising between 8 and 20 local volunteers located in each site. Each of these Teams also had a part-time paid coordinator as well as access to the Regional Researcher. These teams were responsible for:

• Meeting with Regional Researchers and staff to discuss the most appropriate ways to evaluate the progress and success of the EZ/EC program

• Gathering information locally to help in assessing progress made toward meeting the program’s goals in the community and in identifying successes and obstacles to success

• Identifying lessons from the community’s experience that should be shared with others

• Participating in workshops to share those lessons with other communities and with program leaders

• Sharing the findings with others in their own community through follow-up learning and educational activities

Team members decided which of the EZ/EC’s program’s local goals were most important to them and, using a flexible evaluation tool called a “Learning Wheel” (see diagram), each did its own monitoring, analysis, and reporting. The Learning Teams were expected to work with and share their findings with local EZ/EC boards, while maintaining sufficient autonomy to evaluate and discuss their findings freely and openly.

The Learning Initiative had three broad goals:

• Capacity-building through development of skills and leadership of local participants in rural EZ/EC communities

• Continuous improvement of the program, through strengthened citizen participation, feedback, and accountability

• Research and evaluation development through local documentation and learning.

CPC conducted a documentation of the pilot phase of the project (January 1996–June 1997). This documentation included findings related to the early implementation of the EZ/EC program based on citizen monitoring and assessment of selected goals in the pilot communities, and findings related to the Learning Initiative approach.

To understand the Learning Initiative, researchers examined the extent to which the three broad goals were addressed. Learning Teams were asked to address the following questions:

1. How have you grown personally as a result of involvement with the Learning Initiative?

2. What have you learned through this process related to the Citizen Learning Team Model? What works and what doesn’t? What have you learned “about” or “how to do” while working with the Learning Team in your community?

3. What have been the key findings of your Citizen Learning Team about the EZ/EC program? How did you reach these findings? To whom did you communicate them? What has been the response? What difference has it made so far? From the Citizens Learning Team perspective, what are the major successes and weaknesses of the EZ/EC program in your community?

4. What would you recommend to federal, state, and local governments about the EZ/EC program? What would you recommend to state and local governments about the Citizen Learning Team Model? What would you recommend to someone else who wished to start a Learning Team in their community? What would you recommend to the University about the Citizen Learning Team Model for Phase II?

In assessing the capacity-building activities of the Learning Initiative, researchers looked at skills that had been developed among team members; new and expanded networks that had been created; the extent to which team members had broader and more critical awareness of the political dynamics and culture of their communities; how confidence among members had been built; and changes in the ability of members to take on new roles. To understand the impact that the Learning Teams were having (much of this was too early to assess), researchers documented early policy changes, the role of Learning Teams in maintaining citizen participation and public accountability, the effectiveness of different structures, and the Learning Initiatives’s contribution to continuous learning and improvement at the national level. Finally, to assess the influence on research and evaluation, researchers documented noteworthy team accomplishments and innovations in research, lessons on research design and approaches to measuring and monitoring, and linkages with the Regional Researchers.

Researchers used a variety of data sources to understand the Learning Initiative. These included documents, interviews, and participant observation. The main source of data for the analysis of the capacity-building component of the Learning Initiative were the Learning Teams themselves. Learning Teams produced and presented reports during the third cross-site meeting, which included answers to the questions given earlier in this article. In addition, Regional Researchers worked with the Learning Teams to develop qualitative case studies that provided in-depth accounts of the early implementation and progress of the EZ/EC program and the Learning Initiative. Two national cross-site sessions were held in which participants heard and analyzed case study presentations from each site and worked together to identify key themes, findings, and recommendations. Participants included Learning Team coordinators and team members from each community, Regional Researchers, Ford Foundation staff, USDA Policy and Planning staff, consultants, and CPC Learning Initiative staff.

Although the EZ/EC Learning Initiative pilot project has been completed, the Learning Teams have continued on a voluntary basis in some communities. As poor people feel the pinch of policy changes and budget cuts, their desire to learn what can be done opens many doors for enlarging community based constituencies engaged in participatory learning and education. Understanding how activities such as the EZ/EC Learning Initiative can help develop such capacity is critical to ensuring that voice is given to those traditionally excluded from the policy process.

Andy Mott
Executive Director
Center for Community Change

Vicki Creed
Learning Partners

John Gaventa, Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, was the founder and initial director of the Learning Initiative. Vicki Creed followed John Gaventa as director of the Learning Initiative; she also has her own consultant practice, Learning Partners, in Knoxville, Tennessee.