HOPE SF Peer Leadership Strategy Evaluation

In August, 2013, funds were awarded to organizations in four of San Francisco's public housing communities to develop Peer Health Leadership programs that support robust community leadership and resident-driven strategies. The focus of these programs is to address pressing health and social issues facing children and families in HOPE SF communities.  By the end of 2013, all four communities had hired Resident Peer Leaders and begun program implementation.  The Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University conducted an evaluation of Year 1 of the Peer Leadership programming. The evaluation of the Peer Leadership programs was designed to achieve three goals: program refinement and improvement, understanding the impact of the financial investment in peer health leadership programs, and developing evaluation skills and capacity for on-going program improvement.

A key aspect of the Peer Leadership evaluation was its participatory approach. As an overarching framework of the Peer Leadership evaluation, a participatory evaluation style was implemented.  The purpose of this technique was to create conditions under which the programs (including coordinators and Peer Leaders) and the evaluators partner to define the evaluation goals and methods, and collaborate to interpret the findings.  This approach is ideally suited to engage the HOPE SF sites, which have experienced many outsiders conducting proscribed evaluation that does not always capture the lived realities of the residents.  This participatory approach to evaluating community based programs is unique and can serve as a model for other peer leader programs.