[Mourer]

I think Evaluation is like a Scout behind enemy lines because it helps us get important information to decide on an appropriate path to “Victory” but we need a well trained scout (good Evaluation skills) and the proper objective for the scout (focus on important questions) to be able to gather useful information and plan a good strategy.

[Kaci-Ann]

Evaluation to me is observing the many different aspects of a particulate thing/people and coming up with a short summery of your thoughts about it.

[Julia]

Evaluation is like a lipstick because it’s smooth, shiny, and shows that someone has put that little bit of extra effort into ensuring the external is just as good looking as the internal.

[Cameo]

Evaluation is like a first impression. It seems daunting to make a positive and lasting representation of your person, however, the information one garners from a first impression isn’t always indicative of the others lived experiences and general personhood.

[jayal]

Here’s my metaphor for Evaluation — a guided tour of an art exhibition. An individual or a group of folks welcomed into a space/process with some signifiers such as visual/multimedia information that has been carefully curated or shaped to tell a story or evoke something in the viewer. What is taken away from the experience of this is a exchange/dialogue (spoken and unspoken) while participating in the tour but also maybe afterwards. It is sensory information. It is also contextual and relational viewing. Interesting exhibits consider many things like accessibility, their audience, their themes, engaging questions and objects/artworks etc.

[Caroline]

I love how you represented evaluation as an experience in this metaphor. Awesome, Jayal!

[Satabdi]

I think evaluation is like a board game because the community consists of rewards and deterrences that guide youth through the game of life. Although we cannot simply prevent all of the bad outcomes from happening, we (stakeholders) can provide more positive outcomes such as a lucky card that will help them (youth) throughout the game (life) 🎲

[Caroline]

Absolutely, Satabdi! And similar to board games, we’re given some instructions at the beginning on how to start, but we don’t know where we will end up!

[Ivy]

As someone who is always listening to music, evaluation to me is kinda like a song? A lot of different instruments and vocals (i.e., all the different components like youth, stakeholder feedback) coming together to form one song (i.e., one evaluation). Separately, they don’t really sound like much, but together, they tell a story in a very beautiful way!

[Caroline]

This is such a nice interpretation, Ivy. Thanks for sharing!

[Sara]

Evaluation is like an onion because there are many layers to it, and more layers than you anticipate there will be!

[Caroline]

Love this! And if I might add, sometimes there are some tears involved 😉 JK!

[Lulu]

The first thing that came to my mind was baking, especially for someone who’s not a great baker like me (I see Andrew had also pitched the idea). Evaluation is like learning how to bake. You never know where it can go wrong but you learn and better along the way!

[Caroline]

And as we see with evaluation, some of the best learning comes from those unexpected instances!

[Jeanie]

Here is my attempt at coming up with a metaphor for a concept that I’m not very familiar with…

Evaluation is like a ship and stakeholders are like the ship passengers, without proper communication or engagement, we may steer the ship in any direction and arrive at a destination that the passengers didn’t wish to go.

Plus if the ship is going down, we probably want to let the passengers know and do some damage controls

It’s a bit far fetched but I tried 😅

[Caroline]

Not far-fetched at all, Jeannie 😀 I love how this metaphor provides a more broad conceptualization of the evaluation process and highlights the importance of effective communication within it.

[Alexandra]

Evaluation is like a key, because it unlocks the information necessary to fill out the gaps of your improvement process. Without that critical piece of evidence obtained through evaluation we are not able to understand the needs we need to address or the changes we need to make in order to deliver a successful program.

[Caroline]

Definitely agree with you here, Alexandra! Evaluation can be an extremely powerful tool for unlocking important information.

[Michaelene]

The metaphors provided already are great!

One thought I had was that evaluations are like adventurous roadmaps. It helps to guide next steps, to take detours or to rewrite the direction as required. All roads taken have value, even if it was to learn that ‘we don’t want to go that way again.’ I added the descriptor ‘adventurous’ to encompass a ‘preferred’ destination/outcomes that are fluid, flexible and ready to respond differently as needed or as the data indicates.

[Caroline]

Love the concept of an “adventurous” roadmap! 🙂

[Andrew]

Its a bit like baking a cake. There are stakeholders – staff at the grocery store, people who will eat the cake, People who you share the kitchen with. There are inputs – all the ingredients. There are processes – mixing, baking, etc. There are outputs…you can make one, two , three cakes. There are outcomes…Is the cake delicious to eat? how did it sit with you after you ate it, etc….

[Caroline]

This is a “sweet”metaphor, Andrew! Thanks for sharing. If only all evaluations actually included cake!

[Stephanie]

Evaluation is like a GPS navigating system because it is able to direct you toward your desired destination (or goal). However, when roadblocks come up along the way, it helps point to the best ‘route’ to take to still get to your desired destination. It also calculates the estimated time/ process to get to this destination

[Caroline]

Love this analogy, Stephanie. I like your inclusion of roadblocks- it shows that you understand how evaluation is not always “perfect”. Roadblocks are a natural part of the evaluation process and don’t deter us from getting to our destination!

[T]

Evaluation is like a weather forecast it can give an idea of what may or may not happen but it wont be able to predict 100% what can happen.

[Caroline]

This is also a great one. Thanks, TP! You’re absolutely right- evaluation plans give us an idea of the outcomes we want to see from a program, but there is no guarantee that those outcomes will be achieved.