Lessons learned from dual site formative evaluations of Countering violent extremism (CVE) programming co-led by Canadian police

ABSTRACT

Drawing on lessons learned from recently completed formative evaluations of police co-led CVE programming in Toronto, Ontario and Calgary, Alberta, this research aims to underscore the importance of, and provide technical guidance on, evaluation and reporting standards in the context of multi-agency CVE programming – which ultimately will help to facilitate the identification and replication of good practice. The results of the evaluative process highlight the need for greater articulation regarding intended program outcomes as well as program theorising regarding the underlying mechanisms that connect program activities and outputs with said intended outcomes. Both evaluations also demonstrated the importance of prioritising collaboration at both the evaluation-level and the program-level to facilitate successful and robust program implementation. As such, this study also yields findings that speak to the beneficial role that the evaluative process itself can play in facilitating the evolution of CVE programming.

KEYWORDS:

• Countering violent extremism (CVE)
• formative evaluation
• secondary intervention
• Canada

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The research team conducted two types of evaluation on the FOCUS Toronto model – a process evaluation of broader table operations, and a smaller, more focused formative evaluation of the layering-in of CVE situations. Here, we report on the latter and on findings from the formative evaluation of the ReDirect program in Calgary.

2 This refers to evaluative methodologies that examines the delivery of a program and focuses on how things unfold – that is, how the program was implemented, how it is delivered and how it currently operates. As such, process evaluations offer a valuable means of modelling changing program needs, by documenting casual mechanisms, by identifying significant contextual influences, and by monitoring/facilitating program adaptations (Evans et al., 2015); Overall, process evaluations should extend the scope of a program evaluation and enable researchers to reassess the responsiveness of existing methodologies and frameworks as they are being used (Evans et al., 2015).

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by Public Safety Canada's, Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence, Community Resilience Fund (CRF) [grant number 8000-18876]. https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/bt/cc/fnd-en.aspx