Recently Completed Work

We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.

(Gwendolyn Brooks)

In September 2025 I wrapped up my work as Evaluation & Learning Lead with Getting Everyone Online (GEO) Nova Scotia. I started with the organization in 2020, when it was formed during the pandemic in response to the growing digital divide that further excluded people whose lives were already full with many challenges. My role included capturing the story of GEO, conducting developmental and formative evaluation processes, preparing annual reports showing the impact of getting everyone online, and nurturing and building a learning culture.

In the spring of 2025, I worked closely with staff the Africadian Empowerment Academy to help them create a Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) system that would facilitate efficient and coordinated reporting of program outcomes to funders, and meet organizational reporting purposes. The process was collaborative and iterative, and the topics we worked through included:

An overview of fundamental M&E concepts, theories, and practical applications
Methods for identifying and defining indicators, and designing appropriate data collection tools
Best practices in processing, analyzing, and visualizing data to derive meaningful insights
Techniques for compiling reports, presenting findings, and leveraging insights for program improvement

In Spring 2024, I conducted an evaluation of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) NS DIvision's pilot project, M-Power: Building Community Capacity in Rural Nova Scotia (MPower). This project was created to address a known need to strengthen mental health supports in rural areas in Nova Scotia due to lingering stress from the pandemic and the Mass Casualty. Strategies for strengthening mental health included fostering collaboration between formal and informal sectors, enhancing community capacity, and promoting mental health literacy. I documented the story of MPower, conducted focus groups with Board and staff members, and met with participants at project workshops to gather their feedback. I synthesized the data into an evaluation report and went through it carefully with the Advisory Committee to finalize it.

From January 2023 to the summer of 2024, I provided evaluation and research support to the Front Street Community Oven in Wolfville. During this time, I developed a logic model and facilitated a collaborative process to articulate the Community Oven’s story of transformation. I also designed and implemented a light-touch Developmental Evaluation Plan, along with a framework for assessing the overall process and impact of the Oven’s activities, while meeting reporting requirements for project-specific funding. In parallel, I conducted research on other community oven initiatives and explored indicators related to fostering a sense of community belonging and shifting local narratives about connection and inclusion.

In the fall of 2023 and the spring of 2024, I partnered with Pyra Management Consulting to conduct an environmental scan for the Atlantic Policy Congress of First Nations Chiefs Secretariat (APC). The scan looked at existing complaint structures in the Atlantic Region, and made recommendations to APC about addressing anti-Indigenous racism in the health care system. Our methodology included:

a targeted grey and formal literature review to identify successful strategies used to address anti-Indigenous racism in the healthcare system
focus groups with First Nation Health DIrectors from across Atlantic Canada, and with the Health Partnership’s Non-Insured Health Benefits Committee
interviews/focus groups with First Nations Health Directors, key informants from health authorities, regulatory agencies for self-regulated health professions, Indigenous patient navigators; and key informants from agencies within and outside Atlantic Canada who have implemented strategies to address anti-Indigenous racism in the healthcare system
a review and analysis of formal complaint processes, and creating process maps of each organization’s complaint process to help identify, at a high level, the main steps in healthcare complaint processes

We presented the findings of the data analysis to the Advisory Committee to seek their insights on interpreting the data and explore potential recommendations, and then prepared the final report. We subsequently presented the findings to the Public Health & Primary Care Committee, and to the Atlantic First Nation Health Partnership.

In 2023, I met biweekly with a staff member to provide thought partnership and critical reflection, and support them in building understanding and confidence for dealing with challenges, recognizing opportunities, and making decisions that supported the organization's mission.

In the autumn of 2023 I facilitated a strategic planning process for Scleroderma Atlantic. The planning process began with close discussions with an Advisory Group of Board members, then I conducted virtual interviews and focus groups with Board members, working groups, staff, volunteers, and key partners. Next I synthesized all the data and used it to inform the design of a day-long in-person strategic planning session that I facilitated with Board members and volunteers from across the Atlantic Region. My next task was to draft a strategic plan based on t heir input and share it back with everyone who had partcipated. I worked with the Advisory Group to finalize the strategic plan.

In the spring of 2023, I provided learning and evaluation supports for Fathers in the Kitchen. This project was designed to reach out to fathers, custodial or non-custodial, to provide a safe and supportive environment to discuss many of the issues that men in general and fathers in particular may be facing within their personal, community and family lives. This program was modeled in part on the Shed Movement, where men support other men in deepening conversation and constructive change in combination with an activity. Fathers in the Kitchen focused on providing a sense of comfortable fellowship from cooking together, as a departure point for creating space to address deeper issues as they pertain to masculinity in general and fatherhood in particular. I provided guidance about reflection and evaluation throughout the project, worked with project leaders to develop an evaluation plan, checked in with project leaders at key points, and facilitated reflection sessions with participants and facilitators. I crafted a participant success story that illustrated what changed for participants in relation to food and to their families. I also facilitated a final reflection with project leaders to identify program strengths, challenges, and learnings to inform future programming.

Fathers in the Kitchen

From February to November 2022, I facilitated a strategic planning process with the Board of Directors of the Kings Volunteer Resource Centre. I facilitated two half-day sessions with the Board: the first to conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) assessment and determine progress on action areas in a previous strategic plan, and the second to affirm a new strategic plan based on Board input, research I conducted about Board diversification processes, and a discussion to determine the scope of KVRC’s mission on a provincial level.

In the fall of 2021 I co-facilitated the development of a theory of change to tell the story of NSCC's Human Rights, Equity & Inclusion work. We conducted a survey with Departmental staff and leaders; designed and facilitated a virtual engagement session with staff and leaders to gather their input about the work needed to bring about the desired changes; and hosted a second virtual engagement session to share the draft theory of change with staff and leaders, and gather feedback about revisions needed. We finalized the theory of change with the Advisory Group.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse