Community development with survivors of torture and trauma : an evaluation framework

Despite an increase in community development initiatives in refugee contexts, there is a lack of evaluation frameworks to assess the effectiveness of interventions in the recovery of refugee communities. In response to this gap, the Forum of Australian Services for Survivors of Torture and Trauma has developed an evaluation framework in consultation with refugee client groups and agencies' staff members. This paper contextualizes the goals, principles and strategies of services implementing community development initiatives with torture and trauma survivors and describes the process of developing the framework within a participatory action approach. Both outcome evaluation and process evaluation are discussed, and examples of the framework are presented. Community development agencies and professionals working with survivors of torture and trauma can play a significant role by fostering community empowerment through evaluation.