Best Practices for Outcomes Assessment in Community Economic Development
BEST PRACTICES FOR OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT IN COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: LEARNING FROM HUMBOLDT COUNTY (1998-2000)
Both private and government funders are demanding more rigorous indicators of project outcomes. This project examined the promise and limits of outcomes assessment, using research conducted on California's north coast, an area moving from timber dependency toward more diversified economic development. A research team conducted surveys and focus groups with community decision-makers, and worked closely with a diverse set of project developers as they prepared project descriptions based on a "program logic model" that specifies outcomes and indicators.
The study found that outcomes assessment practices are difficult for local project developers to understand and implement. Viewed as a good idea in the abstract, they are frequently resisted or abandoned in practice. A key question - how particular projects are contributing to community-wide goals - is difficult to determine with existing methods, which focus either narrowly on project specific outcomes or broadly on community-wide indicators.
The utility of outcomes assessment is as a corrective to an agency-centered rather than results oriented perspective on project planning and evaluation. But this utility can only be realized if outcomes assessment is used flexibly and strategically, as a set of practical tools for staying on course, rather than as a rigid mandate that imposes unnecessary time burdens and restricts local creativity.
Funding to support this research came from the competitive grants program of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. It was conducted collaboratively with UC Cooperative Extension, Humboldt County, and the Center for Environmental Economic Development in Arcata.