The politics of (e)valuation in community projects: creating a Living Impact Methodology to pluralise accountability and centre lived experience

Abstract

Increasingly, community-based organizations (CBOs) that have a social impact are required to evidence their impact through accountability and evaluation methods that are complex and inappropriate for their specific context. In response to this challenge, we offer a participatory approach to social return on investment (SROI), which builds on a participant's own self-narration of their past and their lived experience of engaging with the CBO. To do this, we draw upon participatory action research and oral history methodologies in combination with social value methodologies to refocus evaluation and accountability on the impact experienced by those in the community. By engaging in a tripartite approach—which we name the Living Impact Methodology—we are able to show the social impact of transformative projects, beyond what would usually be captured in accounting and accountability, shifting the way that CBOs engage with SROI evaluation. By engaging with community members in the process of transformative accountability, we demonstrate a methodological approach that academics can use to work with CBOs to pluralize and democratize forms of accounting and accountability in the evaluation and monitoring of community impact projects.