We reimagine research and evaluation through collaborative, community-centered practices
Reimagine Research Group uses community-centered research and evaluation to help a diverse range of organizations better engage communities, define success, and measure outcomes from community-based perspectives. We use data, reflective practices, and capacity-building to create stronger pathways toward equity and inclusion.
We center community voices to create change
With renewed national urgency to address systemic racism, social injustice, and persistent social and economic inequities, many organizations have been reflecting on the ways in which they are complicit in these persistent inequities and how to contribute to a more equitable and inclusive society.
Reimagine Research Group commits to reimagine how evaluation can support institutional and societal change and rethink who does evaluation, how it is done, and for what purpose. We work with a range of organizations, including museums, libraries, K-12 schools, higher education institutions, national alliances, and foundations, to center community voices and to support organizational learning, reflective practice, and transformational change.
Our Mission
Reimagine Research Group is committed to building collaborative research and evaluation processes that are equitable, humanizing, and accountable to community needs and values. We aim to center community voices and advocate for equity, diversity, access and inclusion in cultural and learning organizations.
Our Vision
We envision a world in which all individuals and communities feel a sense of welcome, belonging, and agency to participate fully in all aspects of society and its cultural institutions.
How we reimagine your organization
We strive to facilitate evaluation and research that center the cultural values, norms, and needs of communities, so that growth and change can happen in ways that are relevant and beneficial from community perspectives.
We recognize the urgent need to dismantle conventional research and evaluation practices that have alienated and oppressed many communities through deficit-based, funder-centered, and evaluator-driven approaches. We use a collaborative model in our work, partnering with other researchers and evaluators who bring diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences that align to your project and community contexts.
When we begin working with your organization, we will engage with our collaborators to build a team that best fits the needs of your project, and to offer a thorough, customized approach to the research and evaluation approaches needed to reimagine your organization.
Jill is exceptional in her work. Her knowledge of the field, working deeply in community, connecting with individuals and organizations is second to none. Our Museum has grown in transformational ways because of our partnership with Jill and her colleagues, especially Shelly Valdez. The museum field is fortunate to have such a thoughtful advocate for our work and through her research and evaluation, we are able to thrive and strategically make decisions to move our work forward.
Jill and Shelly are fantastic partners, advisors, and mentors to our project. Their collaborative evaluation approach has inspired creative reflection in our team and improved the work within our team and with our partners. Jill and Shelly bring their complementary expertise in drawing from both Western and Indigenous evaluation. They both bring in-depth experience in working with informal science education projects that bridge Western and Indigenous cultures and their guidance on how to walk this line carefully and thoughtfully has been invaluable.
Supporting you in the long-term
We see evaluation as an ongoing process designed to support organizational learning and growth, not to pass judgement or impose change from the top down. Research and practice suggest that sustainable organizational change is deeply rooted, inclusive, and built over time.
We value building authentic relationships with our project partners, spending time in community contexts whenever possible, and understanding as best we can the communities with whom we are collaborating.
We support building capacity for evaluation within communities and supporting the growth of local evaluators as a way to dismantle systems of oppression and honor how communities define what success looks like for them and how to measure it.
We recognize that all of this takes time, commitment, and an ability to be deep listeners rather than “drivers” of your process. We hope to build long-term relationships with our project partners to create lasting and sustainable change in your organization and communities.