KaBOOM!
GRANT DESCRIPTION
To support community engagement by involving citizens in projects to build and improve neighborhood playgrounds in 10 Knight communities.
ASSESSMENT PURPOSE & APPROACH
Key Questions
• How does KaBOOM! engage volunteers in community engagement and does it increase their skills?
• What factors promote the successful implementation of KaBOOM! projects?
• What characteristics of KaBOOM! community partnerships support community engagement and how does partnering with KaBOOM! increase the community engagement capacities of partners?
• Under what circumstances is community engagement realized utilizing short and focused intervention strategies that results in a concrete product (e.g. a playground for community youth)?
Approach: The evaluation will look at five of the 14 KaBOOM! sites commissioned by Knight (located in Philadelphia, Detroit and Miami). The project will assess participant and community-based organization outcomes through community volunteer surveys, events observations, interviews with community-based organizations, KaBOOM! staff and volunteers, programmatic data review, and documentation of physical changes at build sites and their surroundings. The project is also focused on improving KaBOOM!’s own data collection systems and survey instruments.
Assessment Partner: Public/Private Ventures
PROJECT FINDINGS
The project launched in 2010 and is scheduled to generate findings by the end of 2011.
Projects discussed in this publication
KaBOOM!
To support an expanded KaBoom! model to include expanded training for volunteers and capacity building for the local sponsoring nonprofit in nine playgrounds builds in Akron, Miami and Detroit
KaBOOM!
To fund the 2,000th KaBOOM! community-built playground at Imagine Southeast Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. in June 2011
KaBOOM!
To provide 5 Knight communities with an engagement program that develops civic leaders by involving citizens in projects to improve at least 14 neighborhood playgrounds
About our Engaged Communities focus area
To help sustain healthy communities in a democracy, we aim to increase the ability of individuals to engage in change. Trabian Shorters on our strategy
About our Grant Assessments methodology
As part of our grant making process, program teams work with grantees to establish indicators that will be tracked to provide feedback on project implementation and outcomes. In certain cases, we also partner with grantees to conduct in-depth third-party evaluations to understand the effectiveness and impact of specific projects.