We begin the report with a brief description of the evaluation purposes and process. The majority of the report focuses on the learning that emerged from the evaluation beginning with the personal and contextual factors that underlie engagement in the Project and moving on to name Project outcomes (what difference did VALTA make?), elements associated with the outcomes (what made a difference?), issues and concerns, and the experience of participating in VALTA. In the final section, we reflect on the learning from the perspective of its implications for future endeavours. Throughout the report we have used the words of participants to illustrate the learning.¹³

The Evaluation Process

Our Evaluation Approach

The research approach that we used to evaluate VALTA was one of "interpretive inquiry" in which we sought to understand the lived experiences of Project participants. We engaged with the participants in a spirit of mutual learning, hoping that they would gain from sharing their stories as we gained from hearing them. Throughout the Project, we made efforts to seek out diverse perspectives and to be mindful of individual voices as well as being attentive to shared perspectives.

An important element of our evaluation approach is to work collaboratively with Project participants to ensure that evaluation learning is relevant and meaningful to them. In this Project, we worked closely with the Project coordinators to develop evaluation questions and focus the inquiry. Also, in recognition of the knowledge and expertise of participants, we made efforts to seek their input as to the relevance of our evaluation questions and approaches. Once we had collected data on the first phase of the Project, we shared the learning with participants and engaged in dialogue with them to deepen our understanding of the learning.