4 minute read
Introduction
Jan 2020 - April 2021
Social Research & Development Evaluation
The purpose of the social research & development (R&D) phase of Participatory Canada is to understand whether the Participatory City approach is both feasible and viable, and if it has the potential to create value for all residents in a community, or in a neighbourhood. After this first year of social R&D we are closer to answering the questions. The strategy we followed for scaling Participatory Canada was to support and partner with three city teams to test the Participatory City approach. These teams were provided with learning and development resources, hands on experience, and mentoring and funding. As a result, we’ve learned about what can and cannot be done to create the conditions for successful implementation of the approach.
“Scaling may be even harder and more demanding for organizations than innovation, because so many things that shape the success of their efforts are outside their control.”
(Seelos & Mair, 2018, p. 228)
Guiding Questions of the Social R&D Evaluation
This report sets out to capture what we learned during this first year of social R&D. The main questions we asked were:
To what extent is the Participatory City approach feasible, viable and desirable? And does it have the potential to create value for all residents in communities in Canada?
This led to four primary research questions we asked of each prototype:
1. Feasibility
To what extent is it possible and desirable to create an ecosystem of participatory projects, and a well-functioning support platform?
3. Value Creation
To what extent is this approach to building participation capable of creating value for individual community members and neighbourhoods?
2. Inclusivity
To what extent is it possible to create an ecosystem of participatory projects with all residents of a neighbourhood?
4. Viability
To what extent is this program likely to be viable in the current local economic, political and social contexts?
The first year of social R&D centred on supporting teams wanting to adapt the Participatory City approach to a neighbourhood in their city. Prototype projects were identified in Toronto’s Regent Park, Kjipuktuk-Halifax’s North End, and Montreal’s Tolhurst-StBenoît in the spring of 2019. Whereas in the UK, the Participatory City Foundation focused on building an experiment in the single borough of Barking & Dagenham in London, here in Canada prototypes were rolled out in a range of Canadian cultural contexts. As these prototypes adapted the Participatory City approach to fit their neighbourhoods, the evaluation of these prototypes similarly evolved.
Adapting Participatory City to new contexts is essential to the success of the approach, as is adapting the way in which it is evaluated. The shape each prototype took, how they were delivered, and the values they produced owed much to the different team and community members. Ultimately, outcomes must be identified and evaluated in the context of each location.
Methodology
This report provides a synthesis of the evaluation carried out by the three prototype teams in order to give readers an in-depth understanding of the feasibility, value creation, inclusivity and viability of the Participatory City approach in a Canadian context.
Additionally, this report aims to provide insights from the Participatory Canada core team in their role as learning partners and co-creators of the prototypes with the local teams. This core team included members from the McConnell Foundation, Participatory City Foundation, and COLAB (the author of this developmental evaluation report).
The research approach and methodology used by each prototype focused on multiple forms of resident evaluation, team reflections and observations. Resident evaluation included quantitative measures of direct and immediate outcomes during individual sessions and workshops, as well as qualitative responses about benefits experienced through participation. The evaluation also included insights from each prototype team who participated in regular developmental evaluation conversations, facilitated both internally and with Participatory Canada team members.
Taking a Developmental Evaluation Approach
A developmental evaluation framework was used to guide the evaluation strategy, as it emphasizes the importance of data emerging from the practical and immersive experience of developing a new approach and methodology. This description of developmental evaluation is from Patton (2006) Developmental Evaluation:
“Developmental evaluation supports innovation development to guide adaption to emergent and dynamic realities in complex environments. Developmental evaluation tracks and attempts to make sense of what emerges under conditions of complexity, documenting and interpreting the dynamics, interactions, and interdependencies that occur as innovations unfold.”
Varying Levels of Evaluation Experience, Expertise and Capacity
Each team had different organizational contexts, structures, and experience with developmental evaluation.
The Regent Park Toronto team included external researchers through a partnership with Mitacs Canada. In this case, highly skilled researchers on short term contracts worked in parallel with the delivery of the neighbourhood prototype.
The Montreal team took an embedded approach, where the delivery team also lead the evaluation. This included collecting and analyzing data, as well as sensemaking. The process of developmental evaluation was new for this team.
Meanwhile, the Kjipuktuk-Halifax team was made up of individuals from different organizations, and was housed in the Mi’kmaw Native Friendship Centre. The evaluator came from the local partnering organization Inspiring Communities, a group with robust experience in leading developmental evaluation. The evaluator was embedded in the team and part of delivery of the prototype.
This evaluation was only possible because of the significant contributions from the Kjipuktuk-Halifax, Montreal, and Toronto teams. We give our thanks to all of the team members.
