In assessing efforts to center the communities that are disproportionately affected by commercial tobacco–related harm, evaluation metrics may include the number and type of opportunities for community members to participate in the design and implementation of policies. Relatedly, metrics about uptake rates and data about participants can contextualize the degree to which participation opportunities represent the community.
Measure “centering community” by . . .
- Documenting the use or number of multiple, varied opportunities for participation by residents and other partners, such as . . .
- Interactive media touchpoints that broaden reach into a range of areas or groups in the community, using principles of digital and language accessibility/justice
- Direct input tools like surveys and community hearings throughout the policy process (e.g., planning, drafting, implementation)
- Advisory committees, boards, panels, or review bodies that invite community members to provide input to the decision-making process
- Job opportunities for policy planning and implementation, with a focus on hiring people from communities most affected by the policy issue
- Records, reports, or stories on how participation opportunities have informed implementation goals and processes
- Gathering data to understand the uptake of participation opportunities for residents and other partners, such as the number of . . .
- Different linguistic or cultural versions of materials or engagements in media/outreach efforts, surveys, and hearings
- Sources or venues sought for their ability to reach audiences across the range of community groups most affected by the policy issue
- Unique participants via various participation opportunities
- Project hires from the community most affected by the policy issue
- Participants who indicate lived experiences related to the policy issue
- (or rate of) Participants with specific demographic identifiers like those reflected in community-wide data
- Gathering, using, and sharing data during community participation opportunities in ways that emphasize partnerships and lived experience — for example,
- Forming partnerships with, for example, community-based organizations, resident groups, or community-embedded institutions to gather, use, and share data
- Implementing disaggregated data-gathering techniques
- Collecting qualitative data through a variety of means, to complement numerical data and statistics
- Reporting data and findings in easy-to-use public sources, like press releases, social media, published reports, websites, and interactive data dashboards
- Establishing ongoing, periodic systems to update data over time
Key Resources on Centering Community
- Urban Institute, Changing Power Dynamics Among Researchers, Local Governments, and Community Members: A Community Engagement and Racial Equity Guidebook
- Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Program Evaluation and Evaluating Community Engagement, in Principles of Community Engagement, 2nd ed., chap. 7
- City Energy: A Joint Project of the National Resources Defense Council and the Institute for Market Transformation, Engaging the Community in Policy Development
- Rose SW, Ickes M, Patel M, et al., Centering Equity in Flavored Tobacco Ban Policies: Implications for Tobacco Control Researchers, Preventive Medicine, 2022;165(Pt B):107173
- Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Division, Indiana Department of Health, Indiana Community Partner Evaluation
Explore the Metrics
This list of sample metrics is one of several in our web tool Policy Process Evaluation for Equity, a collection intended to inspire conversation and new considerations among changemakers who are developing evaluation provisions and plans in policies to promote health equity. Each list highlights the importance of deepening our community partnerships, our use of data, and the way we communicate about our work throughout the policy process.
Explore other metrics for measuring the community impacts of policy partnership below. A downloadable version of this tool is also available for offline use and sharing.