Disempowerment Evaluation and the Risks of Avoiding Stakeholder Feedback

ABSTRACT Evaluation can bring positive, often cathartic effects for those who participate in evaluation activities. Inviting stakeholder feedback conveys respect, a commitment to improvement, and lets program participants know their perspectives are valued. The absence of evaluation, on the other hand, can cause harm to program recipients by conveying the message that their voices don’t matter—and their experiences matter even less. This is particularly the case for programs and policies that mandate participation, such as recent hotel quarantine policies or federal vaccine mandates. In this article, the notion of disempowerment evaluation—the structural avoidance of stakeholder feedback— is introduced and its potential for negatively affecting participant health and well-being is discussed. Implications for evaluators of counseling and mental health programs are discussed.