161: Engaging your community to increase evaluation participation: How Nebraska’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) evaluators build relationships to engage stakeholders, and how you can too.

The evaluation team for Nebraska’s 21st CCLC Afterschool Programs has carefully cultivated relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders to foster buy-in and participation in evaluation processes. This multi-tiered relationship building has led to exceptionally high levels of engagement from all stakeholders: the grant administrator and the grantees managing the programs down to the sites implementing the program, their community members (e.g., building principles and school-day teachers), the afterschool staff, and the students participating in the programs. For example, 100% response rates are not uncommon at several levels of the evaluation. This poster will highlight several best practices in relationship-building that the 21st CCLC evaluation team has implemented, offering actionable strategies you can apply to enhance relationships and increase stakeholder engagement in your own evaluation projects.