As Indigenous communities continue to shape programming to reflect their own stories, ways of knowing, and cultural perspectives, there is a growing need for frameworks that support the infusion of this knowledge into the evaluation of their programs focused on substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery support.

Seven Directions, a departmental program directed by Myra Parker, JD, MPH, PhD, with the support of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention and the National Network of Public Health Institutes, has produced an Indigenous Evaluation Toolkit. The Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance, worksheets and concrete examples to support communities looking to Indigenize and decolonize their program evaluation. While applicable to all health promotion activities, this Toolkit focuses on the urgent need to address the ongoing opioid overdose crisis and the related impacts of substance use in Indigenous communities throughout North America. It is critical for substance use prevention programs — which are increasingly reimagining their services using traditional healing approaches and/or practices – to have access to tools that infuse Indigenous ways of knowing into the evaluation of their programs focused on substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery support.

The toolkit was developed in partnership with Joan LaFrance, EdD, who developed the initial Indigenous Evaluation Framework with the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. Several Seven Directions team members were instrumental in leading the toolkit development, including Danielle Eakins, PhD, Angela Gaffney, MPA, Caelin Marum, MA, and Tsering Wangmo, MPH, along with Dr. Parker and Maya Magarati, PhD. Leo Egashira, MBA, and Jacob Fong-Gurzinsky, MS, also Seven Directions team members, provided extensive review and editing. Learn more