Evaluation is everywhere! Conducting evaluations helps people to learn about and improve programs, initiatives, policies, priorities, strategies, projects, processes, and other areas of service, innovations and transformations in every field and sector. An evaluation can be as simple as a survey or as complex as a multi-year project. Useful evaluations help strengthen programs by providing clear and actionable information about what works, what doesn’t, and what can be changed.
To define and communicate the value of evaluation in Canada, and strengthen its community of practitioners, the CES Board of Directors, supported by consultation with members, developed this definition of evaluation:
Evaluation is the systematic assessment of the design, implementation or results of an initiative for the purposes of learning or decision-making.
(To learn more about the process of defining evaluation in Canada, see the article, “Toward a Definition of Evaluation Within the Canadian Context: Who Knew This Would Be So Difficult?”, in the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, vol. 29, no. 3.)
The membership of the CES-ON represent different sectors including the provincial and municipal government, non-profit organizations, heath care and social service agencies, school boards, colleges and universities, and private practice consultants.
Through membership with CES members are able to learn, network and collaborate with other evaluators who are involved in advancing evaluation theory and practice in Ontario, as well as across Canada.
The Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) is a strong and vibrant multidisciplinary association and is committed to building evaluation capacity at an individual and organizational level.
In its quest to promote ethical, high quality and competent evaluation in Canada, CES was the first professional evaluation association in the world to institute a Credentialed Evaluator (CE) designation for its members through the CES’s Professional Designation Program (PDP).