A Partnership for Dekalb County Active Seniors: Planning a Community Based Participatory Evaluation of Health Promotion Programs

Issues: The Lou Walker Senior Center (LWSC) is a multipurpose community facility serving a community of identity defined as active senior adults aged 55 and older in Dekalb County, GA. LWSC is located in an area of the county that is densely populated by black residents. Minority seniors are most vulnerable to health inequities because their baseline health status lags far behind non-minority groups; as a result, it is important to evaluate the innovative programming implemented by the LWSC for the purposes of improving health and social well-being of its members. Description: This presentation describes the 2 – year planning process for a participatory evaluation between the Dekalb County Human Development department that operates the LWSC, center members, and the University of Georgia College of Public Health. The process for encouraging: (1) dialogue between all of the stakeholders, (2) goal setting, (3) participation and (4) an empowered defined community will be discussed. Lessons Learned: In order to plan a strong participatory evaluation, there must be buy-in from stakeholders. Additionally, the development of evaluation indicators that are meaningful to center members and staff is critical and piloting data collection instruments and techniques is crucial. Further, the process of bringing together different agendas from members of the potential evaluation team is long and designating a facilitator for this process was key. Recommendations: Next steps in this planning process include: (1) collaboratively finding and obtaining diverse sources of funding for sustained evaluation activities and (2) providing stakeholders with appropriate training for evaluation activities.