ABSTRACT
Empowerment evaluation is the use of evaluation concepts, techniques, and findings to foster improvement and self-determination. In essence, empowerment evaluation is a tool to help people produce desired outcomes and reach their goals. Empowerment evaluation is practiced throughout the United States and in over 16 countries, ranging from Australia to Israel and Japan to South Africa. Empowerment evaluation's conceptual building blocks include: streams, theories, principles, concepts, and steps. Empowerment evaluation in practice is typically applied along two streams. The first is practical and the second transformative. The pertinent theories guiding empowerment evaluation are empowerment theory, self-determination theory, evaluation capacity building, process use, and theories of use and action. The theoretical foundations of empowerment evaluation lead to specific principles required to inform quality practice. Empowerment evaluation concepts provide a more instrumental view of how to implement the approach. The three-step approach includes helping a group, namely, establish their mission; take stock of their current status; and plan for the future.
