Methods and Practical Approaches for Evaluating Social Service Collaboratives: The Evaluative Coterie

Doing more with less and showing results are two themes that are driving social service agencies. Partnerships between institutions are one way to provide both services and evaluative skills that one agency alone cannot provide. Increasingly, such collaboratives are becoming commonplace. This article will focus on the formation and underlying dynamics of decision making with respect to evaluation collaboratives, ie, coteries of evaluation professionals that review collaborative social service initiatives. The article will outline the new concept of evaluative coteries from a theoretical perspective and describe, examine, and offer practical ways of reconciling challenges and maximizing benefits in such collaborative evaluation efforts. Two examples that exemplify such collaborative efforts from the state of OH will be highlighted. 3 Tables, 1 Chart, 19 References. (Original abstract - amended)