As the War on Poverty grew, so did governmental evaluations, and foundations followed suit. Some are full-time evaluators, others do it as a sideline. The evaluations themselves are just as diverse. A report can be so full of charts and graphs that it looks like a statistics textbook. Another might be purely descriptive, a collection of stories of neighborhood people.
Most evaluations now follow a basic formula.
Evaluators create a neighborhood portrait with demographic data, extensive interviews with clients, or surveys with residents. The same variable are measured at the program's end. Variables may be as clear and tangible as crime rates or school graduations, or as amorphous as neighborhood pride or political will. In the abstract, evaluations seem like a good thing. Clients of social service and community development programs often feel alienated and judged by the evaluation process.