Empowerment evaluation: Key methodology aspects from participatory research and intervention with Roma girls

Abstract

Empowerment evaluation (EE) is an especially useful tool that enables people to be involved in both individual and group transformation processes, in particular in contexts characterized by social inequality. By using a participatory approach, this methodological article analyses an Empowerment Evaluation experience within the European RoMoMatteR project. This project, which focuses on the notion of reproductive justice, has involved a group of Roma girls from Alicante (Spain), in a context characterized by discrimination based on ethnicity, gender and age, as well as by structural determinants such as social exclusion. The main research objective has been to analyse the relevance of the methodology designed to assess how project participants have developed a sense of autonomy and the acquisition of socio-cultural resources as assets for their future life choices. Therefore, the study design has followed the model proposed by Fetterman for Empowerment Evaluation: establishing a mission to be assessed, participatory diagnosis of the current status and finally planning for the future to start the desired change. Fetterman's model was adapted by designing and organizing participatory workshops with the girls involved in the project. The results confirm the relevance of the methodological proposal of the workshops to engage aspects of empowerment. The findings also allow to detect the empowerment of the Roma girls especially in two areas of the project: reaching the proposed objectives and the methodology used to register significant information. In the first case, the results show that Roma girls' establish a critical perspective on the idea of reproductive justice, and related to this, the activation of proactive behaviours linked to the acquisition of socio-cultural resources in the development of visions of their personal futures. In the second case, the Roma girls have also shown empowerment in decision-making on technical aspects, methodological design and taking action aimed at the collective construction of useful information in the project.