Four Equitable Evaluation Insights

Since 2022, the Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) has provided grants to 30 communities to support the planning and construction of outdoor spaces designed with community input. Through CHF’s Equitable Community-Designed Outdoor Spaces program, grants of $25,000 to $50,000 fund essential aspects of community-driven design efforts, including personnel, meeting space, stipends for participants, translation, childcare, and other resources that enable more inclusive community involvement. In 2023, the Omni Institute began evaluating CHF’s 2022 funding cohort, aiming to help CHF understand how these communities engaged in participatory and collaborative design processes. This case study highlights four key equitable evaluation insights from the project, covering considerations in evaluation design and the flexibility needed to make real-time adjustments during the evaluation.