Perspectives from LGBTQ+ serving CBO leaders on equitable community‐academic partnerships in evaluation

Abstract

In the United States, human service, public health, and healthcare organizations are dedicated to improving health equity among our society's most vulnerable. A wealth of literature highlights the importance of targeting root causes of inequity, however, intervention‐based attempts to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities have varied in their success. Too frequently, public health interventions fail to center community priorities and challenge oppressive regimes. At the same time, calls grow to pilot and evaluate new systems of care and service to replace antiquated, patchwork systems that depend on power imbalances and resource hoarding. The authors of this article, as current and recent leaders of Black‐led, LGBTQ+ organizations, engage in a conversation, in which we reflect on the power dynamics and pitfalls associated with community‐academic partnerships. Through our dialogue, we invite readers to internalize our testimony and re‐envision the role of the evaluator as a champion of liberation. Only through disrupting the status quo can evaluation hope to stand in community with “priority populations” and join the fight to achieve health equity. As members of the communities we serve, we transgress traditional means of how power and stature are allocated by being present in this special issue. We speak bluntly to honor our truth and inform evaluators in the process of fostering partnerships.