This Demonstration presented lessons learned from the Inclusive Coordinated Transportation project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living. The project supports knowledge building and demonstration projects to learn how inclusive coordinated planning can improve transportation programs for people with disabilities and older adults. The session will presented:
- a diagnostic tool that can be inclusively used by program participants and sponsors to assess the level of inclusiveness of a program, organization, or community. The diagnostic tool can encourage a dialogue about inclusiveness, identify differences of opinion, and encourage discussions about inclusive program management;
- information on performance measures for monitoring inclusive practices; and
- lessons learned about inclusion that can be used to guide inclusive planning and evaluation of programs.
Participants learned about different types of inclusive practices, effective methods for monitoring inclusion, and how inclusive practices can support stakeholder involvement in evaluations.
In theory, including program participants in program planning and operations makes a lot of sense. The evaluation community has long discussed the importance of stakeholder issues (Mohan, et al., 2002), participatory and collaborative evaluation (Patton, 1997), and empowerment evaluation (Fetterman, 1993). However, inclusive practices may vary across disciplines. The session was not focused on how evaluators can be more inclusive in evaluating programs. Instead, the focus of the demonstration was on how evaluators can determine if the programs they are evaluating are inclusive of program participants and how such inclusion can be monitored and evaluated. The session was consistent with the conference theme "Speaking Truth to Power" since inclusion is about sharing power, and the voices of program stakeholders are supported by an inclusive process in order that they may be heard.
Many public and nonprofit programs seek to include program beneficiaries and related stakeholders in developing and operating programs. Arnstein’s research on “A Ladder of Citizen Participation” (1969) was the inspiration for the Inclusive Coordinated Transportation adaptation focusing on inclusion of people with disabilities and older adults in public and nonprofit transportation planning. Because people with disabilities and older adults may not feel safe using a “ladder,” the project team asked a group of people with disabilities/older adults in Rockville, Maryland if they would be more comfortable with an analogy referencing a “path” (preferably one that meets requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act) rather than a “ladder.” Arnstein (and Lithgow, 2006) classify levels of participation (citizen engagement) from low to high, with lower levels focused on non-participation, middle levels focused on tokenism, and higher levels focused on citizen power. The Pathway to Inclusion recognizes that there are varying levels of inclusion, but does not dismiss lower levels that are less inclusive. Lower levels of inclusion provide valuable “steps” on the Pathway to Inclusion since lower levels functionally provide support for development of effective programs. For example, inviting people with disabilities and older adults to planning meetings is not especially inclusive given a goal of including participants in decision-making. However, without first identifying potential participants, inviting them to meetings, and collecting data on their perspectives (surveys, focus groups), a path to more inclusive decision-making is not possible.
Arnstein’s model was based on federally-funded programs (anti-poverty, urban renewal, Model Cities). The Path of Inclusion was developed as part of a program funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living. The program is focused on researching the impact of inclusive practices related to transportation planning and operations that seek to keep people with disabilities and older adults active and productive in their communities by focusing on transportation needs. The federally-funded grant program requires active and meaningful participation of partners from transportation and human services organizations representing the interests of people with disabilities and older adults. The demonstration was sponsored by the Disabilities and Underrepresented Populations Topical Interest Group.
References
Arnstein, S.R. (1969). A Ladder of Citizen Participation. JAIP, Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1969, pp. 216-224.
Fetterman, D. (1993). Empowerment evaluation: Theme for the 1993 evaluation meeting. Evaluation Practice 14(1): 115-117.
Lithgow, D. (2006). A Ladder of Citizen Participation - Sherry R Arnstein. Downloaded from https://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html on March 7, 2018.
Mohan, R., Bernstein, D.J., and Whitsett, M. (Eds.) (2002). State and local government evaluation: Responding to sponsors and stakeholders. New Directions in Program Evaluation, 95.
Patton, MQ. (1997). Utilization-Focused Evaluation: The New Century Text. Thousand Oaks, CA. SAGE Publications.