Using Participatory Research to Plan Evaluation in Violence Prevention

C onsensus is growing that sustainable improvements in the health of the communities are achievable only through a systematic process of community involvement, organization, and participation. Although the notion of local involvement has been fundamental to communitybased public health, more recent recommendations seek to raise the community’s role to the lead partner in a collaboration of public and private organizations. This approach to health promotion and disease prevention has implications for both the conduct and content of the evaluation of such initiatives. However, closer inspection of planning models, such as Community Health Improvement Plan, Prevention Plus III (PPIII), and Planned Approach to Community Health (PATCH) (American Public Health Association and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1993; Institute of Medicine, 1997; Linney & Wandersman, 1991) shows a lack of specificity about how evaluations of community-based initiatives should be planned, who conducts the evaluation, and exactly how community input into evaluation is generated. Advice on how to conduct evaluation research varies considerably, ranging from an emphasis on controlled comparisons (e.g., PATCH) to encouragement to col-