Nexus places a high value on evaluating results to measure and document the impact of our investments and technical assistance. Nexus currently evaluates all of its initiatives at three levels: 1) resident 2) organizational and 3) systems.
1) At the resident level Nexus asks the questions: Have resident’s lives been impacted by this work? Are they more engaged? Has their social capital increased? Are they better positioned to take advantage of asset building opportunities, such as education, employment and/or homeownership?
2) At the organizational level, Nexus asks the questions: Has the organization’s capacity to do this work increased? Have they been able to deepen and/or expand their work? Have they been able to leverage additional resources? And do they have better capacity to work with other organizations currently doing similar engagement work, or work with those organizations interested in learning how to more effectively connect with residents.
3) At the systems level, Nexus asks the questions: How have systems (philanthropic, community development field, etc.) been influenced by this work? Has their way of delivering services or providing support changed in any way? Has their capacity to interact with community engagement organizations been strengthened? Has their capacity to connect with and engage communities of color and immigrant communities increased?