Across Latin America, faith-based organizations (FBOs) have become key agents in the creation, management and implementation of a wide array of community and economic development programs (Hefferan et al., 2009). Empirical research documenting how these organizations actually carry out their efforts remains relatively sparse; and even less is known about how FBOs ordinarily evaluate the processes and programs that comprise the community change interventions they implement. This chapter reflects on the efforts of a team of researchers, community development practitioners, and residents of rural communities in El Salvador to develop and sustain a program of evaluation research for community development initiatives. The discussion details the challenges that team members confronted in trying to build the evaluation capacities of a Salvadoran FBO, and it highlights how they adapted the purposes and processes of evaluation in order to increase the involvement of community stakeholders in planning and carrying out research.
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your Elgar Online account
-
Front Matter
-
Part I: Foundations
-
Part II: Research Methods and Frameworks
-
Part III: Emerging Constructs and the Future of Community Development Research
